Billingham Town’s first goal in over twelve hours of football was enough to give manager Darren Trotter some hope for the future, even though the bottom club lost 4-1 at home to Crook Town.

The first division’s bottom club are just a couple of defeats away from relegation but Trotter, in his first game in charge since the departure of Wilf Constantine, was encouraged by his team’s performance, which according to Town’s fans was their best for some considerable time.

Trotter gave five new players their debuts – the club has now registered an astonishing 85 players this season – and he said; “I thought 4-1 flattered Crook. Considering that I’d only had two training sessions with the lads, and some of them don’t know each other, then I thought they did very well.

“They had a lot of energy, and rolled their sleeves up when we were 2-0 down at half time. Our sub, Danny Ballantyne, made a big difference when he came on, especially as he’s never played at this level before.”

Town gave a very spirited performance in the first half, and kept Crook at bay, with keeper Joe Williamson pulling off a couple of good saves, while Crook’s shooting was wayward at times.

But Crook took the lead on 32 minutes when Chris Wallace headed a Richard Hodgson cross from the right towards goal, and Billingham full back James Leeds sliced the ball into his own net.

Crook right back Marc Ellison got the second before half time, when he hit a fierce cross-cum-shot across Williamson into the net.

Town kept their heads up, and took the game to Crook in the second half, especially with the introduction of the pace and strength of Danny Ballantyne. They stunned the visitors by pulling a goal back when Matthew Dixon made a great run down the left, played a one-two, and slipped the ball past Barry Poskett.

There was brief threat of an equaliser before Crook scored their third when Hodgson chipped the ball to the far post for Kyle Davis to head in, then sub Adam Nicholls charged through and fired left footed into the top corner.

Crook manager Gary Pearson said; “We needed the three points in the light of some of our recent results. We knew it wouldn’t be easy because they’ve got a new manager and some new players.”

David Bayles’ first league game in charge of Bishop Auckland saw them lose 3-0 at Consett on the 3G pitch.

Both sides missed chances before Consett took the lead on 66 minutes when Andy Cuthbertson squeezed the ball past three Bishop players for Michael Mackay to run through and beat Scott Pocklington.

Mackay scored his second on 80 minutes when a left wing cross was knocked down for him to score from ten yards and then he completed his hat trick when he picked up a long ball down the left and beat Pocklington at his near post.

Bishop Auckland manager David Bayles said; “In the first half we played ok without doing great, we had three chances but didn’t capitalise upon them. We never got going against the wind in the second half. Michael mackay’s finishing was fantastic.”

Consett manager Kenny Lindoe said; “The wind spoilt the game, but after defending it in the first half, we ran out comfortable winners in the second half.. I’m pleased we kept a rare clean sheet but we were still too wasteful in front of goal.”

Guisborough won their Teesside derby by 3-1 at Billingham Synthonia. The home side started well and took the lead when Michael Sweet’s shot was blocked and Kris Hughes followed up to score.

But Guisborough levelled when former Synners player Tommy Marron scored from a corner, and then took the lead on 39 minutes when Adam Gell hit a tremendous shot past Synners keeper Seb Furness from the edge of the box.

The league’s top scorer, Danny Johnson, made it 3-1 against his old club on 76 minutes with a clever lob from a Luke Bythway pass. Johnson has now scored 33 league goals this season.

Guisborough manager Chris Hardy said; “We had a very slow start in the game allowing the home side to take a one goal lead, it took about 20 minutes for our lads to get started and once we did there was no looking back.

“The second half started exactly where the first finished with ourselves being firmly on top and in all fairness the game should have been out of sight after 15 minutes of the restart.

“It’s always nice to come out on top of derby games and in fairness to Synners their start was bright and asked questions of ourselves but once we started to contest the key areas in the game I believe we came out as worthy winners of the contest.”

Billingham Synthonia assistant manager Lee Tucker said; “We should have been 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes but from then on we were poor and will be looking for a positive response next week.”

All the other ENL games were postponed.

In the Evo-Stik League, Blyth drew 2-2 at Stafford Rangers after leading 2-1 until four minutes from the end. Robbie Dale and Danny Parker scored their goals.