Vanarama National League: Guiseley 3 Torquay United 2

GUISELEY played their ‘get out of jail’ card in a smash-and-grab raid as they banked an unlikely maximum from the visit of Torquay United in the Vanarama National League thanks to two late goals from substitutes.

The Lions and the Gulls had both endured a difficult start to the new campaign, and Torquay had sacked their manager Kevin Nicholson after a defeat on Tuesday had left them with one point from four games.

They were the first club inside the five national divisions of English football to press the trigger.

The Gulls were under the stewardship of Nicholson’s assistant Robbie Herrera at Nethermoor and looked on course for a first win of the season before two last-gasp strikes rescued Guiseley.

It was an up and down game as the Lions began well and were dominating the early exchanges.

Jake Lawlor slotted them into a 13th-minute lead after a Danny Lowe header following a corner had come back off the bar.

They should have been further ahead as John Rooney saw a well-hit free-kick blocked and his shot from the rebound well saved by Ryan Clarke.

Soon after that, Connor Brown broke down the flank and cut in before sending in a low shot that hit the near post.

Momentum swung after that and the visitors took a 2-1 lead into the break after Sean McGinty had headed them level and a through ball picked out Ruairi Keating,who steered the ball past Joe Green.

Guiseley keeper Green pulled out a string of fine saves as the Gulls had the hosts in all kinds of trouble early in the second half.

Green saved shots from Jamie Reid and Jake Gosling before the latter shot right at the Lions stopper and a Reid shot was deflected wide.

Poor defending allowed Torquay skipper Luke Young a sight of goal but Green foiled him before denying Reid once more.

The visitors were still looking the major threat and were also running the clock down in the last ten minutes.

But Guiseley equalised out of the blue through Kevan Hurst, who had replaced Will Hatfield in the 68th minute, with less than two minutes remaining.

Four minutes into the five of stoppage time, the ball was turned in during an almighty goalmouth scramble and Lee Molyneux, who was on for first goal-scorer Lawlor, claimed it.

The win left Lions boss Adam Lockwood with mixed feelings.

He said: “Firstly, I’m delighted to get off the mark in terms of wins.

“We got a real good foothold in the game and I thought we looked good. I don’t know if we took our foot off the gas or if it was just down to poor decision-making, but some sloppiness crept in and I saw a lot of things that I didn’t like.

“I was disappointed throughout the entire match if I’m honest.

“Having said that, character, attitude, which I’ve said from day one, we have in abundance.

"I’d just like us to be smarter and stem the flow when the tide turns in matches, and we were very poor at that and there were a lot of individual mistakes.

“We looked dangerous from set-pieces, which we haven’t so far – we’ve worked hard on that.

"We have to build on this win and take positives from it but at the same time we have to knuckle down on the things that disappointed us all as a group.”