Halifax Town 1, Scarborough 2

After losing five consecutive matches, Scarborough gave themselves real hope of avoiding the drop into the Conference with a hard-earned 2-1 win at Halifax.

Scarborough have now closed the gap on Carlisle United to just two points, but have a crucial game in hand against Plymouth Argyle at the McCain Stadium on Wednesday night.

Carlisle finish their programme at home to Plymouth on Saturday, when Scarborough entertain Peterborough and with the Seasiders having scored more goals, it could well be that two draws will see Scarborough safe.

In recent games Scarborough have missed simple chances, but in the first nine minutes of this game, they scored twice and could have had at third.

"It just shows you what a difference taking your chances makes," said Scarborough manager Colin Addison.

"Those two early goals gave us something to defend, which we did magnificently and we could have added to those goals on the break."

Chris Tate set up the first goal when he cleverly picked out Graeme Atkinson at the far post. Atkinson was unmarked as he sent a looping header over Lee Martin in the home goal.

This was after seven minutes and just before Atkinson nearly made contact with a Matthew Russell cross with the goal beckoning.

Scarborough had started in a positive fashion and two minutes after Atkinson's first goal for the club, Russell cleverly put Steve Brodie into the danger area, with Brodie eventually forcing the ball home after Martin could only parry his effort.

It took some time for Halifax to get going, but when they did, they did so with a vengeance, with Jamie Paterson running the midfield area, sending Justin Jackson and Dave Hanson into the heart of the Scarborough defence with neat passes.

It was Jackson who reduced the deficit when Mark Bradshaw's mis-shot found him at the far post, but that was the only time that Tony Parks was to be beaten as Halifax laid siege to the home goal but were unable to equalise.

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