Lancaster City 0 Bishop Auckland 1

LANCASTER are now guaranteed to finish in a record breaking sixth place but cannot steal fifth place from Emley after this second consecutive home defeat.

Manager Tony Hesketh said: "Another day, we will play worse than that and score five goals."

There was celebration in the air, with the first team proudly showing off the Unibond Cup, the U-14s parading their league and cup double and the unveiling of City's new mascot Dolly.

But the smiles were soon wiped off the supporters' faces when Blyth took the lead against the run of play.

The goal was scored in the 27th minute and running up to that there were several instances where Blyth were offside but it was not given because the referee's assistant adjudged the player not to be interfering with play.

And this was apparent once again in the build up to the goal.

Hesketh said: "This not interfering with play rule is too much of a grey area for me, it affected the goal and it ruined our defence even though we were playing a good offside line." But play carried on despite the offside and Andrew Shaw found himself one-on-one with Mark Thornley.

City's keeper proved why he has the most clean sheets in the league once again when he burst out of his goal and made a superb block.

But the ball was unfortunate to rebound off Jamie Udall and Shaw stole upon the chance and shot into an open net.

Lancaster continued applying the pressure but were to find a great foe in the shape of the crossbar.

Paul Sparrow's chipped shot across the goalkeeper from the edge of the 18-yard box rebounded off the metal and Dean Martin's header from Jimmy Graham's corner was tipped onto the bar.

The second half continued as the first had ended, complete Blue domination. Farrell Kilbane was emerging as the danger-man with his crisp header being cleared off the line. Mayers saw his close range header spiral out of the ground and substitute Kevin Barnes had his shot tipped wide by Stephen Jones.

The introduction of Shane Jessop put more pace onto the right wing but City couldn't reap the benefits.

Late on Kilbane latched onto another superb header from Kenny Mayers' cross but this one had beaten every man on the pitch, as it shaved past the post.

Hesketh added: "To finish in the top six is a fantastic achievement. For next season, we're not going to make any wholesale changes, though there are many players from higher leagues that have been calling me saying they are keen to join next year."