RUSS O'Neill says he was delighted his Guiseley side bounced back from their first defeat of the season as they beat Spennymoor Town in the Vanarama National League North.

The Lions roared to a 3-1 midweek home win after recovering from a 3-0 loss at Southport the previous Saturday.

Two more goals from Aaron Martin and a first for Lee Shaw saw the Lions home against a spirited Town team, who were playing only their second game of the new season due to stadium works at their Brewery Field home not being complete to enable games to be hosted yet.

Joint-manager O'Neill said: "I'm over the moon as it was against a team who did really well last season as they got to the play-off final.

"We bounced back from Saturday. I can't speak highly enough of the lads and they deserved the win.

"We asked for a response in the first-half from Saturday's game.

"We conceded a silly goal but we kicked on in the second half and did really well.

"We are really happy we have responded from Southport. We've got to take every game on its merits, every game is different."

In a fairly even first 20 minutes against Spennymoor, where clear-cut openings were at a premium, Martin went closest to breaking the deadlock but Brad Nicholson’s cross was just out of reach.

The stalemate was finally broken on 31 minutes as a George Cantrill throw floated over Gould and his defenders to the far post where Martin finished with a powerful downward header.

Buoyed by the goal the home side took the game to Town but Spennymoor pegged them back on 34 minutes when a shot from Andrew Johnson was cleared off the line only for the ball to cannon off goalkeeper George Sykes-Kenworthy and into the net for the equaliser.

The Brewers had their best spell after the restart and forced several corners which ended with Johnson sliding in to meet McKenna’s cross, but his effort took a slight deflection before clipping the bar and going over for another corner which came to nought.

Having survived the onslaught Guiseley forced another throw on the right level with the eighteen yard line to put the Town defence under pressure once again, this time with Scott Garner’s flick on setting up Martin for his second with a clinical header into the top corner on 47 minutes.

Another set piece caught Town in two minds once again and as they struggled to clear their lines Hamza Bencherif’s shot was deflected into the path of Shaw to shoot past Gould from close in with 14 minutes remaining and seal a third win from four starts for Guiseley.

Martin was then just centimetres short of his second hat-trick in four games as Gould’s wayward punch under pressure from Shaw sailed across the six-yard box.