GUISELEY tumbled two places to sixth in the Vanarama National League North, below neighbours Farsley Celtic and Northants club Brackley Town, as the Lions were mauled by the Tigers, losing 3-1 at Gloucester City.

The hosts play their games at nearby Evesham Town’s ground, after many years of sharing with Cheltenham Town, but they made the most of their ‘home’ advantage as they came from a goal down to take three points.

The Lions were down to ten men for more than half of the game after leading scorer Aaron Martin was shown a straight red card following an incident late in the first half.

A melee erupted and play was stopped, with the referee speaking to his assistants before producing yellow cards for two of the home players and a red for Martin, apparently for an alleged head butt on Tigers’ skipper Sam Avery.

The contest was finely balanced at the time as the home side had recovered from conceding a seventh minute goal. It was a wonder strike from Guiseley’s Gabby Johnson as his long range drive gave home keeper Zach Jeacock absolutely no chance.

Gloucester were denied by the woodwork midway through the first half when Joe Hanks’ stooping header came off the bar, but they were level before Martin’s dismissal. Marlon Jackson headed Chris Knowles’ 37th-minute free-kick past Lions’ keeper Marcus Dewhurst.

The game opened up in the second half, which wasn’t ideal for the ten men of Guiseley and Gloucester took advantage. City edged in front for the first time when Luke Rosse headed in Zack Kotwica’s 58th minute cross and they almost made it three soon after but Joe Parker’s shot cannoned off the post.

It was Jackson who got City’s third, firing past Dewhurst after the Lions keeper’s rushed clearance had dropped to him.

Guiseley’s joint manager Russ O’Neill said: “It turned out to be a bad day at the office when we’d gone ahead early on with a great goal.

“I don’t think we managed the game very well in the ten to 15 minutes after that and it got away from us. It was a silly red card for Aaron – I’m not sure how much of a red card it was to be honest and I’d like to see it back.

“My initial reaction was, from the referee’s reaction, I didn’t think that he'd seen anything and the assistant didn’t look as though he’d seen anything but then all of a sudden it’s a red card.”