FARSLEY Celtic moved back into the play-off places in the Vanarama National North with a home win, but Guiseley dropped from fourth to fifth after they suffered a heavy defeat at third-placed Chester.

The Celts should have broken the deadlock early against Kettering Town as they were awarded a fifth-minute penalty, but Ben Atkinson missed the target from 12 yards at the Citadel.

It didn’t stall them for too long, however, as former Bantams midfielder Dave Syers headed home a Jordan Richards cross in the 16th minute.

Farsley took that slender lead into the break but Syers didn’t reappear after being clattered by the Poppies’ keeper Paul White late in the first period, Will Hayhurst coming on as a second half substitute.

Farsley’s on-loan York City defender Tom Allan doubled their lead when he steered home another Richards cross midway through the second half.

The struggling Poppies hit back soon after when substitute Marcus Kelley netted a superb free-kick.

Jimmy Spencer thought he had restored the two-goal cushion but his effort was ruled out for offside. It was Hayhurst who added the Celts’ third after White could only parry a Luke Parkin shot.

That should have been job done but Kettering pegged another goal back when Brett Solkhon converted a 79th-minute cross. That left Farsley boss Adam Lakeland feeling frustrated, he said: “It should have been an easier win.

"It wasn’t but that is the only negative for me because it was a good performance.”

Meanwhile, Chester won the battle of the promotion hopefuls at a canter as Guiseley suffered a 3-1 defeat at the Deva Stadium.

The Blues led 2-0 at the break after a first half brace brought a seventh and eighth goal of the season for Akwasi Asante.

The Chester forward opened the scoring in the third minute with a close range finish and after he was fouled in the area he added his second from the penalty spot.

Guiseley had chances in the second half but former Lions loanee Anthony Dudley netted Chester’s third.

Dudley had a loan spell at Nethermoor when he was a Bury player and he sidefooted past Lions keeper Lloyd Allinson after seizing a loose ball.

The Lions Aaron Martin is outscoring Asante so far this term and he added another to his tally when he headed home a late corner to sully Blues’ keep Russ Griffiths’ clean sheet.

But it was nothing other than a consolation and Guiseley’s joint-manager Russ O’Neill said: “It was a fair result – we didn’t deserve anything from the game and if we had done it would have been unfair on Chester.

“We’re disappointed in a way because they (Chester) didn’t play the Guiseley that had played the first nine games of the season. We didn’t do ourselves justice.”