Chester City ground out a vital win against Morecambe to stay five points ahead of the chasing pack.
It was far from a vintage performance and Mark Wright's men were thankful to several vital saves from goalkeeper Iain Turner for keeping the Shrimps at bay for the majority of the game.
The match got off to a scrappy start and the first real effort came after ten minutes as Daryl Clare flashed a shot just past the post.
On 25 minutes the visitors had a let-off as Clare crossed from the right and Darryn Stamp was inches away from getting the vital touch which would have brought an almost certain goal.
Chester did have the ball in the net five minutes later when Clare touched the ball home from close range, but the effort was ruled offside.
Chester keeper Turner was called into action seven minutes from the interval, and he made an excellent stop to deny Jim Bentley, while from the resultant corner former Blue Ryan Sugden headed just over.
Chester started the second period scoring after only 18 seconds. A long ball from Scott Guyett found Stamp, who laid the ball off to Alex Smith to fire home from just inside the box.
The home side thought they had doubled their advantage on 55 minutes when Clare had the ball in the net, but once again the referee's assistant intervened and flagged offside.
Four minutes later the visitors had a chance to level when Sugden broke clear, but goalkeeper Turner produced another superb save to force the ball over for a corner.
A cross-shot from Stamp then cannoned back off the bar as Chester pushed for a second to make the game safe.
And it came nine minutes from time after the sweeping move involving Stamp and Smith was ended with a fine finish from Clare.
A freak late goal, as Stewart Drummond's cross took a wicked deflection and bounced off the pitch before spinning over the head of Turner gave Morecambe late hope, but it proved too little too late.