Congleton Town - 1 Harrogate Town - 0

STRUGGLING Congleton Bears survived a last minute penalty scare to pull off a shock win over in-form Harrogate Town on Saturday.

The Yorkshire side were given a golden opportunity to stretch their unbeaten run to nine games when they were awarded the spot-kick for a Dave Oxton handball.

But Pemberton blasted the ball over the bar to hand the home side all three points and drag them out of the relegation zone.

Congleton nearly took the lead on 30 minutes when Darren Washington took advantage of good work from Graham Dodd and Russell Payne, but his left footed goal was disallowed for offside.

The visitors should also have broken the deadlock ten minutes later when Ward's cross was met by Martin Regan, who somehow managed to shoot over from inside the six-yard box.

In the second half Congleton broke into a more positive pattern of play sparked by good work from Chris Birmingham and Simon Rudge.

On 55 minutes Dodd was brought down in the penalty area and picked himself up to slot home what turned out to be the winning goal.

Chances were still few and far between for the rest of the match, with Payne and Washington having the only testing shots on goal towards the end.

Bears secretary Dave Wilcock was delighted with the win, which puts them a couple of points clear of the drop.

"They were certainly the form side in the league and that was the first goal they have conceded in 600 minutes of football so it was a really good victory for us," he said.

"We have a game in hand on the teams below us so it's in our own hands now and we did ourselves a favour on Saturday."

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