And in doing so they ended the home side's nine-match winning run.

Brighouse struggled in the opening stages and there was an early warning for them in the 15th minute when Ben Gilbert beat the offside trap and fed Josh Stacey who fired wide.

And four minutes later Paul Brown got in a tangle dealing with a back pass and Dean Larkin nipped into dispossess him and slide the ball home.

The goal rocked Brighouse for a time and when Gilbert crossed from the left Dean Hammond should have doubled Pontefract's lead with a header only to send the ball over from six yards.

Home keeper Andrew Jones dropped a Jermaine Manners cross under pressure from Ryan and when the ball was cleared to Place he fired narrowly wide from 25 yards.

But Pontefract continued to threaten with Stacey striking a post with a left foot effort at the other end and Brown doing well to push Gilbert wide.

Brighouse gained the upper hand as the half wore on with Jordan Maltas's ball just too far in front of Ryan who fired a free kick narrowly wide moments later.

And they grabbed a deserved equaliser seven minutes before the break after a diagonal run from Chris Wodwczyk whose run went on and on as the defence opened up.

He eventually fed Karl Amos on the right and he cut back inside before firing home from the edge of the area.

The second half could not have started any better for Town as they took a grip on the tie.

Jordan Maltas popped up on the right to take a Manners pass and put Brighouse ahead in the 50th minute.

And six minutes later Chris Wodwczyk started the move that ended with Manners picking out Pinnock who turned and fired home.

Amos saw a couple of efforts go over before Pontefract briefly threatened a comeback, Mark Lafferty firing straight at Brown and Stacey sending a shot wide.

But the game was effectively over as a contest with 17 minutes remaining when Lee Sannison was shown a red card for handling a Danny Ryan shot on the line.

Manners sent the keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot and within three minutes had made it 5-1 after Amos had nodded down a Pinnock cross.

Christian Silkstone's second touch after coming off the bench was to head home a Ryan corner with five minutes remaining.

And Jason Tiplady completed the rout two minutes later, sliding home after good work by Pinnock and Silkstone.

"We had a word at half time and said we felt the game was in our control because we felt we'd had the quality possession," said boss Mark Brier.

"With the right attitude and application we believed we would get what we deserved and we did that."