Invasion

A tense evening at Nethermoor ended to the refrain of "We're staying up..." as Guiseley maintained their National League status in the last game of the season.

Guiseley started the day in a relegation spot, having slipped into the bottom four the previous weekend. To secure safety they needed to better the results of either Boreham Wood or Halifax, the two teams ahead of them. Failure to do that would mean relegation.

Guiseley's start was strong, two goals up inside eleven minutes and a third after half an hour. One might have thought the opponents, Torquay United, were on the beach already, were they not always on the beach. 3-0 up at half-time, but a muted atmosphere as both Halifax and Boreham Wood were leading too.

The nerves seemed to set in in the second half. Torquay pulled two goals back and looked like they might score every time they attacked. Then Guiseley got a fourth and the news came through that Macclesfield had equalised at Halifax. Torquay brought it back to 4-3 with a quarter of an hour to go, but Guiseley held on to win, they had done all they could.

But would that be enough? The match at Halifax wasn't over, all they needed was one goal and it would be them, not Guiseley staying up. The Guiseley players milled round in the centre circle waiting for news and then a cheer erupted from the main stand, Halifax had only drawn, Guiseley were staying up.

Cue a genial pitch invasion, with a good proportion of invaders half the height of the players. The white shirts soon disappeared, but Danny Lowe (4) emerged, lifted above the crowd and chaired off the pitch.

A great day for Guiseley, and an achievement for such a small club to stay in amongst the non-league big boys for another season.