Knaresborough edge past nine-man Campion

Seb Carole’s second-minute penalty was enough to seal a first three-point haul since early November, but Paul Stansfield’s men made hard work of seeing off a a visiting side who had two men sent off.

Knaresborough made the ideal start when Colin Heath got goal-side of a Campion defender and was brought down just inside the area.

Carole kept his composure and dispatched the resulting spot-kick to open the scoring.

A long period of the half then saw the advances of each side cancelled out by the other, before Heath’s free-kick flew over the bar after some Knaresborough pressure.

The home side ended the opening 45 minutes on top with a couple of Heath shots going wide and a Brad Walker effort sailing over the top of the goal.

In the 54th minute, tempers boiled over and Campion’s Danny Stocker was sent off for using an elbow.

Three more cautions quickly followed, two for Knaresborough players, before Daniel Cunningham picked up a second yellow card in the 61st minute to reduce the visitors to nine men.

Carole had a shot saved by Campion gloveman Daniel Armitage, who also kept out Heath’s header, but Knaresborough were unable to settle their nerves as they tried hard to pacify their followers who craved the second goal.

Walker’s shot was deflected over the bar and Will Lenehan headed over from the resulting corner, but the away side were still able to push forward even though they failed to trouble Jack Rushworth in the Town goal.

Dom Wilson came the closest to adding to the total when he found himself some space, but his strike sneaked past the post after Armitage’s stop.

Heath then had a final shot save as Knaresborough held on for their first victory in six weeks.