Bishop Auckland are now ten points adrift at the bottom of the UniBond League Premier Division after a 3-1 defeat at home to Prescot Cables, writes Ray Simpson.

But Bishops only had themselves to blame after being in the lead at one point.

"That typifies our season," said manager Brian Honour.

"We did a lot of good things in the first half, but we had a poor second half.

"We've been going through it for nine months now, we're so inconsistent it's untrue. We didn't have enough in our locker to finish them off."

Bishops took the lead when Chris I'Anson scored after 20 minutes from a pass by Mark Sheeran, and they paid the penalty for failing to press home their advantage.

David Chadwick headed an equaliser, then Eddie Taylor quickly added a second.

And Bishops' misery was complete when Simon Corbett made a good save, but the loose ball bounced off Neil Wilkinson into the net.

The other results in the relegation zone went against Bishops. Gateshead are out of danger for the time being after a 2-0 win at Bamber Bridge, Richard Flynn and Paul Thompson scoring for them.

Blyth also moved up two places with a good point away to Marine in a goalless draw.

Whitby are still in with a chance of promotion after they beat Lincoln United 1-0, David McTiernan scoring in the first half.

Spennymoor are in even more trouble with the UniBond League after they failed to send a team to Marine on Saturday.

The League's patience will be wearing thin after Moors failed to fulfil a league fixture for the fourth time, and it looks as if their fate will be decided by a meeting of UniBond League chairmen on April 24th.

* Full story, see News section.