A GOAL in each half from Mark Ceraolo and Gary Williams gave Accrington Stanley a well-deserved third consecutive victory.

In a match the Reds could have won by five or six goals, they took the lead in the seventh minute when Mark Shirley's good run and cross from the left to the far post was met by Ceraolo who headed in his third goal of the season.

The home side were awarded a penalty after 13 minutes when Karl Bell brought down Phil Denney but Martin Pemberton squandered the chance to equalise, shooting narrowly wide from the spot kick.

Accrington could have increased their lead in the 25th minute. A mis-hit clearance by Harrogate keeper Rob Montgomery fell straight to Williams whose attempt to round the keeper brilliantly thwarted.

After 38 minutes Stanley were awarded a free kick some 25 yards out and Steve Hollis hit a thunderbolt drive that came crashing back off the crossbar. Stanley's second goal came nine minutes after the break when Sean Hutchinson handled the ball, but from the resulting penalty kick Jay Flannery saw his shot parried by Montgomery only for Williams to react first and smash the ball home.

Montgomery was called into action again two minutes later when he superbly turned over a long-range effort by Shirley. Shirley came close to scoring again on 68 minutes, as Stanley continued to dominate. He latched on to a ball from Russell Payne, but curled his shot just wide.

Four minutes from time more good work by Payne set up a chance for Brett Baxter but his well struck shot was saved by Montgomery.

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