The outcome of this West Yorkshire derby was settled by one contentious decision four minutes before the break with bottom of the table Guiseley deservedly leading their mid-table opponents by Ode Odejayi’s glancing header John Rooney was shown a red card for reasons that are only known by the three officials.

The Lions had taken a deserved lead on 13 minutes when John Rooney floated in a free kick from the left and Ode Odejayi had put the Lions ahead when he got in front of Sam Jonson to glance home Rooney’s free kick from the left.

Dayle Southwell then nearly doubled the home sides lead when he left Niall Maher for dead only to see Johnson tip his shot round the post and the visitors then had a further let off after an almighty melee in the visitor’s goalmouth saw the ball fall to Rooney who’s snap shot hit the post with Johnson beaten.

Shortly after Halifax were awarded a corner that the home defence cleared to the halfway line only for the counter attack to abruptly curtailed by referee Andrew Millers whistle, seemingly because one of his colleagues had spotted an altercation in the Guiseley penalty area.

Much confusion and discussion between the three officials followed for several minutes, the outcome being that Rooney, who appeared to be nowhere near the original incident,  was shown a straight red while Town defender Scott McManus got a yellow.

Rooney’ s dismissal understandably disrupted the Lions rhythm which up to that point had seen Rooney, Will Hatfield and Alex-Ray Harvey bossing the midfield battle.

The Shaymen took full advantage on the restart forcing a surfeit of corners only one of which cause any consternation in the home defence when McManus got in a powerful header that was superbly saved by Luke Coddington.

Inevitably though, given the constant pressure with a man short, the home side eventually succumbed when Johnson’s route one clearance found Ben Tomlinson unmarked for him to shoot beyond Coddington and square matters on 68 minutes.

Even then in the closing stages the ten men of Guiseley went close to grabbing a deserved win as Southwell tested Johnson and Rowan Liburd saw his header come back of the foot of the post before Johnson pushed second goal bound shot behind for a corner.

There is no doubt that the dismissal of Rooney had a massive outcome on the game but on a day when all of the strugglers, with the exception of Barrow,  drew it’s very much as you were t the foot of the table. However, with only nine games remaining and the Lions still thirteen points from safety it’s looking increasingly like a lost cause.

Team

1 Coddington

34 Holden (Crookes 88)

40 Flowers

17 Purver

8 Hatfield

5 Palmer

10 Rooney

36 Harvey

19 Odejayi (McFadzean 54)

35 Liburd

12 Southwell

Subs:

13 Green

15 McFadzean

31 Haworth

38 Crookes

39 Roberts