SCARBOROUGH conceded a controversial goal and were unable to take full advantage of visitors Lancaster City being reduced to ten men late on, as they lost 2-1 in Nationwide North.

Lancaster's Jimmy Kelly, who was in the Scarborough team that played Chelsea in the FA Cup two years ago, nearly scored against his old club with a 20-yard drive.

Mark Beesley opened the scoring for the visitors just before the interval. He squeezed the ball in at the far post from a Jimmy Kelly corner.

Ten minutes into the second half, a Kelly free-kick appeared to be safe in the hands of Boro keeper Curtis Aspden but Lee Spike headed the ball into the net and referee Richard Salt awarded a goal, to the disbelief of Boro's fans.

Boro's top scorer, Chris Thompson, back from an ankle injury, came on after an hour and was quickly in action with a shot over the bar.

With 17 minutes left, Carl Cook sent in a ball which Lancaster keeper Jon Kennedy tried to gather under the crossbar. Ryan Blott challenged for the ball in a similar way that Spike had done earlier for Lancaster.

Kennedy lashed out at Blott and the referee gave a penalty, which Thompson converted from the spot.

Lancaster had Michael Taylor sent off seven minutes from the end after kicking the ball away in anger and being shown his second yellow card.