For three quarters of this game it looked as if Lowestoft Town would be on course for a shot at their first Conference North away win of the season.

Without threatening the home goal, the Trawlerboys were playing some nice football and looked comfortable against a side chasing promotion.

But perhaps not even Sam Gaughran himself can explain why he did not play safe and clear a long punt forward from the Guiseley backline in the 69th minute.

Instead, the Town skipper took an extra touch and was robbed of the ball by the Lions' leading scorer Adam Boyes.

The wrong side and unlikely to chase down the forward, Gaughran upended the striker and left referee Peter Gibbons with no choice but to send him off.

As if the game-changing dismissal was not injury enough, Wayne Brooksby's resulting free-kick was poorly struck, but still had enough pace to take a huge deflection off the wall and nestle apologetically in the corner past the wrong-footed Ashlee Jones.

The scorer seemed almost too embarrassed to celebrate; however, the home side did not have to wait long to enjoy a goal of real quality.

On 72 minutes, former Norwich City forward Oli Johnson cut in from the left-hand side and fired home with his right foot from 25 yards out past the helpless Jones to effectively kill off the game.

Jones had denied Johnson and Boyes in the preceding 10 minutes, but otherwise had little to do throughout the game as the visitors held their own.

Both sides tried to play good football, but both were lacking quality in the final third as chances were at a premium.

The biggest excitement in the first period came at the end of the half when Guiseley right-back Ryan Toulson was booked for a terrible late tackle on Jake Reed and all 20 outfield players were involved in a mass confrontation.

Gaughran and home players Danny Boshell and Jake Lawlor also saw yellow for their involvements in the fracas.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with the home side looking to dominate and the visitors absorbing some pressure but looking more at ease than in recent away games.

Aside from Gaughran's blunder, Lowestoft looked better at the back, but the Town management team will likely be more concerned with the lack of a threat at the other end where they failed to register a single shot on target.

Reed and Shaun Bammant worked hard but never looked like breaching the home side's defences and they were not helped by a lack of chances being created by team-mates.

Jefferson Louis was brought in this season to add some experience up front but has so far failed to hit the heights and it is difficult to see where the goals are going to come from away from Crown Meadow.

With injuries and absence continuing to pile up, the Trawlerboys have a lot of questions to answer before another road trip to Stalybridge tomorrow.