National League: Wins for York City, Guiseley, North Ferriby

York City 2 Barrow 1

Improving York City secured back-to-back wins for the first time in 11 months after Sean Newton grabbed a 94th-minute winner against promotion-chasing Barrow.

The Minstermen last defeated two successive opponents as a Football League outfit when February triumphs over Notts County and Exeter briefly provided forlorn hope that the club could fend off relegation.

Less than a year later, York are bottom of the National League, but four wins from their last seven contests in all competitions has raised optimism that this revival will not prove another false dawn.

Gary Mills’ men showed great spirit to secure maximum points after Jordan Williams’ 73rd-minute equaliser had cancelled out Amari Morgan-Smith’s second goal in as many games since arriving on loan from Cheltenham.

But, even though Newton led wild celebrations, his manager insisted he must now get on the scoresheet on a more regular basis, pointing out: “Newts loves scoring and should get more goals with that left foot of his, because he hits the back of the net all the time in training.”

Morgan-Smith had earlier opened the scoring on 21 minutes when he raced on to Jon Parkin’s headed flick-on from a long Kyle Letheren punt before stabbing in from seven yards. A Letheren blunder later saw Williams find the roof of an empty net from 15 yards after the ex-Blackpool keeper had spilled a low ball into his area.

But York were undeterred and Parkin thumped a shot against the post, while sub Vadaine Oliver’s powerful header was well saved by Jonathan Flatt on 89 minutes. One final push then saw Parkin jostle for Oliver’s long throw into the box and Newton blast in from 15 yards after the ball broke to him.

York City: Letheren; Parslow, Klukowski, Bencherif; Rooney (Holmes, 46, Fenwick 90+5), Heslop, Lappin (Oliver, 77), Newton, Whittle; Parkin, Morgan-Smith. Unused substitutes: Moke, ter Horst.

Barrow: Flatt; Beeley, Livesey, Diarra, Anderton; Hughes (Wright, 72), Harvey, Turnbull, Williams (Meikle, 90); Harrison, Bennett. Unused substitutes: Hannah, Rowe, Anderson.

Referee: Karl Evans.

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Macclesfield 1 Guiseley 2

Guiseley gained their first away league win in almost a year after beating Macclesfield Town 2-1 thanks to a Michael Rankine double.

Guiseley took the lead on the half-hour mark when James Wesolowski was brought down in the area by John McCombe and Rankine made no mistake scoring from the spot.

That high for the visitors disappeared immediately when Chris Holroyd from the kick-off was able to get past the defence and produced a calm finish.

New Guiseley signing Derek Asamoah forced former York City keeper Scott Flinders into a smart save, with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Guiseley won another penalty at the start of the second half when Flinders fouled Will Hatfield. Rankine actually saw his effort saved but he was in the right place to fire the rebound in and give the Lions the precious lead.

Macclesfield then had the ball in the back of the net with James seeing his effort go in but it was ruled out for offside and Guiseley held on for a crucial win.

Macclesfield Town: Flinders, Fitzpatrick, Byrne, Pilkington, McCombe, Holroyd, James, Norburn (Dudley 61), Hancox, Whitaker, Perel (Whitehead 57). Unused substitutes: Ross, Halls, Browne

Guiseley: Maxted, Lowe, Brown, Lawlor, Green, Hatfield, Walton, Wesolowski (Preston 65), Asamoah, Cassidy (Boyes 90), Rankine. Unused substitutes: D Atkinson, Johnson, Logan

Referee: Scott Oldham.

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Southport 2 North Ferriby United 4

North Ferriby United put in a strong team performance to claim a 4-2 win at Southport.

The bottom eight in the National League are now separated by just six points.

Curtis Bateson tapped in a sixth-minute opener for Ferriby before Rory McKeown responded just after the break.

Ferriby then took charge with Connor Oliver, Ryan Kendall and Reece Thompson – the latter two in the last five minutes – gave Ferriby the win, before a late Southport consolation.

North Ferriby: Watson; Topliss, Gray, Skelton, Hare, Oliver, Fallowfield (Armstrong 19), Templeton (Cosgrove 45), Thompson, Emerton (Kendall 71), Bateson. Unused substitutes: Fosu-Mensa, Cooke.

Southport: Norman, Higgins, Cundy, McKeown (Weeks 74), Jones, Wright, McKenna, Jones, Hynes, Nolan, Ashton. Unused substitutes: Springthorpe, Grimes, Allen, White.