Leamington 2 Guiseley 3

The Lions hauled themselves up to 13th place in the Conference North when they banked a third league win on the spin.

Mark Bower’s men stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games with a hard-fought victory at Leamington – who drop three places to 19th following the defeat, just two points off the foot of the table.

The visitors got off to a good start and broke the deadlock through Danny Forrest.

Danny Hall, the former Oldham, Hyde and Altrincham defender who was making his debut after being drafted in on loan, doubled their advantage.

Leamington hit back through Ricky Johnson but Jack Rea added Guiseley’s third before half-time.

Although Matt Dodd scored a contentious second-half penalty, the Lions never looked like being pegged back.

Bower said: “It was a game I thought we thoroughly deserved to win. The scoreline didn’t reflect it but we were comfortable and coped well with what they had to throw at us.”

Bower didn’t agree with the decision that led to the penalty but there were other calls by the referee and his assistants that could have gone either way. It was a win the Lions needed though, with Bower adding: “We played some great stuff and winning is a habit.

“When you start to build a little run you want to keep it going and we did that.

“It’s also nice to get the three points from this one because we have no league game for a fortnight.

“It is the FA Trophy next up and that competition has taken on added significance after we went out of the FA Cup at the first time of asking.”