Guiseley 1 Chester 1

GUISELEY battled back from a goal down to extend their unbeaten home run to six games and dent Chester's promotion hopes in the National League.

The Lions remain firmly in the relegation places but are proving a difficult team to beat at home and came within a whisker of beating a Chester side who are now seventh in the table after this result.

The visitors were on the ropes near the end and it needed an unbelievable save from goalkeeper Alex Lynch to deny Jake Cassidy.

Guiseley arguably deserved all three points from this close encounter. They were on the front foot from the off and Lynch made saves to foil Alex Purver, Ashley Palmer and Jordan Preston, while Will Hatfield placed a header over the target.

The hosts were disrupted soon after when they lost Rob Atkinson to a bad knee injury.

There was more pressure from the home side before Chester took the lead on the half-hour mark through James Alabi, who broke the deadlock with a superb acrobatic finish from outside the area.

Minutes later, Preston raced through but was unable to beat visiting keeper Lynch.

Guiseley finally scored from the penalty spot. Connor Brown was fouled in the area by John Hunt and Simon Walton sent Lynch the wrong way.

Lynch was beaten again when coming for a through-ball in the 69th minute but Blaine Hudson cleared Purver's effort off the line.

Following the drama, Guiseley boss Adam Lockwood referred to the dour 1-1 draw at York City in midweek and said: "The one thing I asked for was a reaction from Tuesday. It was the same outcome, the same result, but two totally different performances.

"I said that to the players in there (the dressing room). That's where we've got to be and if we are, then we'll be okay. I think we've been very unlucky in this game because we pulled them about, we pulled them out of shape.

"I think we can do even better at times but in terms of performance, desire and application then we've showed that.

"We kept the screw on them, we kept going to the next phase, again and again. If you do that to teams, you'll win more than you'll lose. I asked for a reaction and I got that."