Bishop Auckland won the Durham Challenge Cup for the first time in eleven years when they beat neighbours Spennymoor with a late Jamie Harwood goal at Eppleton last night.

Bishops gave Moors a better game than Tunbridge Wells did in the Vase final, and Moors keeper Robbie Dean pulled off two good saves from Andy Johnson and Kierna Megran in the opening minutes. Bishops took the lead after 9 minutes when Andy Johnson split the defence for teenager Ryan Cummings to beat Dean from ten yards.

But Moors levelled on 20 minutes when Bishops keeper Peter Jeffries couldn’t hold a powerful Wayne Phillips shot after the winger had cut in from the right and Micky Rae snaffled up the rebound to score.

The dangerous Johnson headed just over from a free kick, and just after the break Dean spread himself to stop Johnson when he broke clean through. Kieran Megran headed a right wing cross against the bar on 70 minutes as Moors struggled to impose their authority.

Cummings, who was booked for a bad tackle on Lewis Dodds, was then stretchered off after he was fouled by Dodds.

Just as extra time was looming, the Moors defence failed to clear the ball inside their box, and it fell for Harwood to fire left footed diagonally past Dean in off the post for the winner.