Guiseley 1 Bradford Park Avenue 5: Jake Beesley hat-trick ensures sweet return to Nethermoor for Mark Bower

After a superb Boxing Day win Avenue boss Mark Bower, the former Guiseley player and manager said: “This is a marvellous win for my group of players, it wasn’t just the result, the perfomance is everything I asked from them.

“Jake Beesley has got a hat-trick, we’ve defended well and I’m ecstatic.”

Meanwhile Guiseley joint-manager Russ O’Neill pulled no punches as he fumed: “We were rubbish, from minute one to ninety, we were not good enough, they wanted it more than us.”

This match started with the leaders dominating from the off, with former Guiseley forward Oli Johnson scoring with just two minutes gone as he beat two players and placed an effort past Joe Green.

The away side soon doubled their advantage when striker Beesley was allowed time and space to get into the area and power an effort in.

Things would get even better for Avenue when again the forward line were given time to create another chance, that they took with ease.

This time Lewis Knight beat his man on the wing, continued his run and passed to Beesley who had a tap-in from three yards out.

The second-half turned out to be much like the first, with Avenue making it 4-0 and Beesley getting his hat-trick, after a rash challenge in the area gave the away side a penalty.

Avenue just kept going and were again given plenty of time to get another as Conor Branson scored with a free header from five yards out after being found from a corner.

With just under half an hour to go Guiseley got one back, when Alex Purver poked in an effort after a corner wasn’t cleared.

The only black mark for ther visitors came when Gianluca Havern was shown a straight red for a late tackle.

But Avenue left with a big three points and a high-scoring victory as well.

Dayle Southwell’s goal handed FC Halifax Town a dramatic 2-1 victory in their Boxing Day derby at Harrogate.

Callum Howe had put the hosts ahead during a strong first-half by Harrogate, but Nathan Clarke levelled before Southwell’s winner for a much-improved Halifax after the restart.

A Halifax win didn’t look on the cards at half-time, but The Shaymen rallied and produced a stirring second-half display to register their first away league win since the opening day of the season, and inflict Harrogate first home league defeat in three months.

Howe saw a couple of headers from set-plays go off target early on, while striker Dominic Knowles also had a couple of early sighters.

Michael Woods almost capped a flowing, intricate move with a low shot across goal, but Sam Johnson produced an excellent save.

After soaking up an increasing amount of pressure, Southwell then squandered a glorious chance after an incisive counter-attack started by Jordan Preston, who eventually laid the chance on a plate for Southwell, but keeper James Belshaw kept out his shot to the left of the penalty spot.

And that miss looked even worse when Joe Leesley produced his 17th assist of the season when his free-kick was volleyed into the roof of the net from six yards by centre-back Howe for his seventh goal of the campaign, as Harrogate’s pressure finally told.

It was much better from Halifax after half-time though, as exemplified by Preston’s cute lay-off to Southwell, whose thumping shot was tipped behind by Belshaw.

And from the resulting corner by half-time substitute Ben Tomlinson, Clarke headed in the equaliser at the far post.

And Southwell completed the gleeful turnaround for the 424 Halifax fans inside Wetherby Road with a drilled shot low across goal.