CITY boss Alan Tinsley fumed at his team for 'throwing away' two points after this game

"I'm extremely disappointed. Their equalising goal came from a mistake by our defender in the last five minutes. If we don't learn to hold on to our leads we will not progress to a promotion spot," he said.

The brilliantly struck equalising goal for Gateshead was indeed a cruel blow for City who themselves had come from behind to take a 2-1 lead in an exciting second half.

Gateshead had looked the better side in a dull first period and were unlucky not to score from Brian Rowe's 20 yard free kick in the 6th minute which hit the bar.

And it was Gateshead who eventually broke the deadlock in the five minutes into the second half. Tony Hall ran the ball up the left wing, turned Ian Lang and then whipped a superb cross into the danger zone which was well met by Kenny Lowe to put Gateshead in front.

Then came the City fight back. They pumped up the pressure and equalised in the 61st minute from a goalmouth scramble, resulting in Jamie Udall's superb strike through a crowd of players on his league home debut.

Then City took the lead with less than quarter of an hour remaining. Jez Baldwin nodded the ball onto the crossbar after a superb shot rebounded off the bar, and it looked like their chance of scoring was over. But a good follow-up from Stuart Diggle gave City a deserved lead.

With victory in their grasp City failed to clear the ball on the 85th minute and Steve Bowey made City pay for their mistake with an excellent 20 yard curler, not many can say they've beaten Mark Thornley from that distance!

Jamie Udall nearly turned from hero to villain when he hit his own crossbar in a clearance, but it wasn't to be. Lancaster City 2 Gateshead 2

Team: Thornley, Lang, Lavelle (Lee 90), Udall, Baldwin (c), Cheal, Trainor, Flannery (McDonald 70), Diggle, Thomson, Graham.

City are at home to Bishop Aukland on Saturday.

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