Skipton Town 3 Broomhill 4

BROOMHILL scored three goals in the last five minutes to steal a hard-fought Craven League Division One victory from Skipton Town.

A brace from Andy Tanner and a header from Chris Holroyd were added to the first-half opener from Matthew Kershaw.

The Badgers started brightly and took a deserved lead ten minutes in. A free-kick was perfectly swung into the box by the excellent Matthew Wilson and Kershaw met the ball with a free header from six yards out.

The visitors could have doubled their lead through Tanner following a great threaded ball from the impressive Jack Richmond but the striker's lob over the onrushing keeper drifted narrowly wide.

The first half ended with Skipton gaining more of a foothold in the game and it needed a fine reflex save from keeper Jake Yaxley to keep the Badgers in front heading into the break.

The second half opened with much of the same as Tom Hill and man of the match Jake Ward pulled the strings in midfield along with Richmond.

However, on the hour mark, Skipton levelled against the run of play. A routine long ball from the home defence was misjudged and the striker found himself with an empty net.

For the next half-hour, Broomhill were rattled. They failed to keep possession and Skipton hit a double in a five-minute period – first through an unstoppable 20-ard strike and then another tap-in to make it 3-1.

With ten minutes left and the visitors looking dead and buried, manager Ghufran Bashir moved Kershaw up front and brought on Holroyd and Mikey Turner to try to salvage a result.

Following a ten-minute period of pressure, a cross from Wilson was floated too far towards the goal and hit the crossbar to go out of play.

The referee deemed that the home stopper touched it first and a corner was awarded. Wilson found the unmarked head of Holroyd to nod home and halve the deficit.

The Badgers equalised a minute later. Neat play from Kershaw and Richmond found Tanner in the box, who was taken down from behind and converted the spot-kick for what they thought was a point.

But in their final attack, right back Aaron Whitaker played in Kershaw, who spun his man and squared the ball to Turner on the penalty spot. He controlled and squared to an unmarked Tanner to curl into the top corner.

While this wasn't their best team performance of the season, Broomhill's never-say-die attitude saw them move into fourth spot from what had seemed a lost cause.