BRIGHOUSE Town’s battle against relegation from the Northern Premier League East Division is set to go to the wire, and they could really do with a favour tonight from near neighbours Liversedge.
The joy of Brig’s excellent 2-0 win at Consett in midweek quickly disappeared on Saturday, as they lost 3-0 at Stockton Town, having missed a penalty while the game was still goalless.
Brighouse remain outside the two-team relegation zone by a point, but it is the side at the foot of the table who will be the biggest concern.
While Brig and second-bottom Winterton Rangers only have one game left each, basement boys Grantham Town still have three matches to go.
And Grantham only sit two points behind Brighouse, so if the former win at Liversedge tonight, they will climb out of the relegation zone and still have a game in hand on the bottom two.
But Sedge are coping well with their fixture backlog, following up last Tuesday’s home defeat to Hebburn Town with victory over Carlton Town on Thursday and three points at home to Ashington on Saturday.
The 2-0 weekend victory for Jonathan Rimmington’s men against their North-East visitors was made even more impressive by the fact that the home side had Dan Hartley sent off in the dying seconds of the first half while the game was still goalless.
But the 10-men rolled up their sleeves, defended brilliantly, rode their luck a little, and won the game thanks to an Alfie Raw penalty and superb solo goal from Kwame Boateng.
Sedge sit 10th in the table, but with three games left to play, they could finish as high as sixth, just short of the play-off places.
Guiseley are still mathematically in the play-off race in the NPL Premier Division after beating FC United of Manchester 3-1 at Nethermoor on Saturday.
All four goals were scored in a chaotic 10-minute period at the end of the first half, while any hopes of a comeback from the visitors were extinguished just after the break when they had a player dismissed for a second bookable offence.
However, Guiseley will no longer be able to make the play-offs if rivals Ashton United draw or win at lowly Matlock Town tonight.
Matlock are at least safe, having secured survival earlier this month.
It took Farsley Celtic a lot longer to do that in National League North, but they managed it on the final day on Saturday.
Needing to better Blyth Spartans’ result to stay up, the Celts secured a dominant 2-0 win at home to Buxton, while their North-East rivals went down instead after a disastrous 5-1 defeat against Brackley Town.
Finally, in the Northern Counties East League premier Division, Thackley rounded off their season with a 1-1 draw at Hallam, player-manager Tom Greaves scoring for the Dennyboys.
Hallam’s late equaliser will be a slight source of frustration for the Bradford side however, as a win would have guaranteed them a sixth-placed finish.
Instead, the draw meant they finished a point behind Penistone Church, and they could still be overtaken by two of Hallam, Silsden and Knaresborough Town, with the latter having two games left to play, while the others have one more match to go.
Hallam’s remaining game is against Knaresborough however, so it is impossible for both sides to finish above Thackley.
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