Bishop Auckland's defensive frailties let them down again in a 1-1 draw at Belper.

Bishops looked set for three valuable promotion points until a defensive clanger gave Belper an equaliser, a result which leaves Bishops still sweating on a top 13 promotion place.

"When are we going to get to the promised land of the Premier Division?" bemoaned Honour.

"We should have had promotion done and dusted by now, but so often we have dropped points by bad defending.

"When does the penny drop with some of them? The same mistakes are being made time and again, and we have to realise that we are in a dogfight for a top 13 place.

"We must make our next three home games count."

They took the lead after 56 minutes when a shot by Neil Maddison was parried, and Micky Taylor followed up to score from the rebound.

But Belper levelled when Steve West lost possession, and Andy Simpson scored from a Pete Stubley cross.

Bishops play Stocksbridge at Dean Street on Wednesday night.

Spennymoor will be pleased that nobody is relegated from the Premier Division this season, because they are now third bottom after they lost 1-0 at home to Lancaster on Saturday.

Manager Tony Lee said: "I thought we dominated, but couldn't put our chances away.

"When you consider that we had a makeshift defence, we did well.

"But we must start winning matches again."

Andy Brown and Paul Talbot both forced good saves out of the Lancaster keeper, who also did well to deny Tommy Raw and Danny Brunskill.

Lancaster scored the only goal after 78 minutes when Jamie Hughes scored from a right wing cross.

Whitby's top 13 hopes suffered a blow when they lost 1-0 at home to Ashton United, while Blyth are in the bottom three with Moors following a 1-0 home defeat by Burscough.

Gateshead also had a bad day in the First Division, losing 2-0 at home to Ossett Town.