TWO second half goals prevented Cullercoats relegating Hexham to fourth position.

Kurtis Harvey and man of the match Josh Bynoe struck to secure the three points for Hexham, making sure new manager Martin Lowes got off to winning ways after Jamie Williams’ departure to Northern League side South Shields.

While the hosts had comfortably beaten Cullercoats 4-1 in the reverse fixture, the visitors came close to jumping ahead of the home side during a close encounter.

They came out strongly in the opening 20 minutes and put a lot of pressure on Hexham, although they were denied an opener by the linesman’s offside flag.

Having weathered the early storm, the hosts grew into the game and nearly caught Cullercoats on the counter with Bynoe running from the halfway line to be one-on-one with the goalkeeper, only to hit his shot wide of the target.

The second half was just as even, but Hexham got the all-important breakthrough on the hour through a flowing move.

Tom Hacking found Ollie McEwan out wide, and he pulled the ball back from the bye-line to be sent home by Harvey with a clever back heel flick.

Cullercoats had a great chance to draw level just five minutes later when Ciaran Fleming was penalised for bundling over his opponent in the area, but Hexham goalkeeper Tom Craney got down low to make an excellent diving save to keep his side in front. The impressive shot stopper was again called into action on two further occasions as the visitors cranked the pressure up, but the youngster stood up to the challenge.

And Cullercoats’ pursuit of a leveller left them exposed at the back, with Hexham capitalising as they cleared a corner to Tom North whose ball over the top found Bynoe, who deftly lifted the ball over the keeper to make sure of all three points.