Guiseley 6, York City 1

ADAM Lockwood saw Guiseley breathe much-needed life into their campaign with an amazing victory that surely sounded the death knell for opposite number Jackie McNamara.

Lockwood had been unable to buy a win since replacing Mark Bower in the Lions hot-seat in late August.

This was Guiseley’s first success at the ninth time of asking under Lockwood and came on an extraordinary night which saw the lights go out on Nethermoor and quite possibly on McNamara’s dismal reign.

Four minutes before half-time, the floodlights failed and the stadium was left almost entirely without light, causing a delay in the match of almost an hour.

When the stoppage came, Lockwood’s rock-bottom side were 4-1 up and in total control, much to the disgust of the huge army of York supporters.

“You’re getting sacked in the morning!” was the chant from the 800-strong travelling contingent towards their under-fire manager.

Referee David Richardson took both sets of players off the field and the ground was left in darkness as club officials finally managed to restore working order to the Nethermoor electrics.

Around an hour after the game was originally halted, raising fears of an abandonment, the sides both re-emerged to play the remaining four minutes of the first half.

Nobody impressed more than man of the match Jermaine Hylton, signed on loan from Swinton earlier in the day, and fellow frontman and debutant Jake Cassidy.

There was talk beforehand that Guiseley were too bad to stay up.

On this evidence, they are good to go down.

But McNamara is in deep trouble after this abject surrender which extended York’s horrific winless away run to 29 matches in all competitions.

The Minstermen led in the 11th minute when centre-back Matt Fry headed home a right-wing corner from Danny Galbraith.

The strike ended a run of five matches without a goal for the visitors – a run lasting seven-and-a-half hours.

But McNamara’s men were systematically taken to the cleaners by the rejuvenated hosts.

In the 18th minute, Hylton brilliantly turned a York defender from Alex Purver’s pass and raced clear inside the left channel.

He then showed intelligence to square the ball across the face of goal to Cassidy, who had a simple task of tapping home from six yards.

Three minutes later, Jordan Preston laid the ball into the path of Purver on the edge of York’s 18-yard box.

On-loan Leeds midfielder Purver curled a superb right-foot beyond Kyle Letheren and into the top right-hand corner.

That promoted an irate York supporter to march onto the pitch and attempt to remonstrate with McNamara before he was ejected by two stewards.

The agony continued for the Minstermen two minutes later when Hylton caused more havoc inside the penalty box, leading to the ball being fired home from close range by Will Hatfield, although there were suspicions that Purver may have got the vital tough.

York were shellshocked and they conceded again in the 30th minute when Preston went through Clovis Kamdjo’s flimsy challenge before firing home a low right-foot finish past Letheren.

In the 55th minute, Hylton got the goal he richly deserved when he pounced on another defensive effort, scampered clear and coolly slotted the ball home.

With eight minutes remaining, York failed to clear a corner and defender Rob Atkinson fired home from 12 yards.