For the second time this season the Reds dominated a game against their Humberside rivals only to come away without the points, writes Andy Rhodes.

With conditions perfect for rugby Skipton took the field with eight changes from the previous week.

Burns, Nicholson, Phillip and Wood returned in the pack, Porter, Berrey and Buck resumed duties in the back division and Paul Arkwright made his seasonal debut on the wing.

After an even opening five minutes the Reds took command, out-scrummaging and out-rucking their opponents who enjoy a mid-table position, and it was only from the lineout that the home side secured regular possession.

Penalty opportunities were spurned by the Reds before Hessle scored against the run of play after 20 minutes when good lineout possession was quickly moved out to the right winger who scored in the corner.

This spurred the Skipton pack to produce what was probably their best 20 minutes play of the season to date. Strong running by Winthrop and Davison led to an infringement by the Hessle defence and Howson duly converted the kick.

Then after bombarding the home line the visitors finally got the try their approach play deserved.

The Hessle pack were driven off their own ball 10 yards out and subsequently driven over their line for captain Winthrop to score a pushover try which was converted by Howson to give Skipton a 10-5 half-time advantage.

Within 10 minutes of the restart the Reds had increased their advantage to 13-5 after another Howson penalty.

However with an eight-point lead and two valuable league points in sight Skipton decided to go to sleep for a 10-minute period which allowed the home side to enjoy their only good spell in the entire match.

Yet it was to their credit that when they did penetrate the Skipton '22' they came away with points, a penalty and an unconverted try by their left winger squaring the scores at 13-13 and setting up a nail-biting last 20 minutes.

At an earlier stage of the season the Reds would have found it difficult to raise their game again and push for the win yet it was they who pressed incessantly throughout the final quarter.

However not for the first time this season they were unable to convert pressure into points and subsequently lost the game in the final minute to two very dubious decisions by a linesman.

The first gave Hessle the throw-in at a lineout on halfway from which they contrived to get a penalty decision 25 yards out. And the second was when the kick appeared to drift left of the upright to most of the crowd yet incredibly the linesman lifted his flag and the referee ran to the halfway line.

The season is now developing into a battle against relegation but Skipton still have their destiny in their own hands providing they return to winning ways this Saturday in the crunch home match against ninth-placed Aireborough, ko 2.15pm.

It is a dress rehearsal for the Yorkshire Silver Trophy Semi-Final on February 7 and a large crowd is expected at Sandylands for what is a huge game for the Reds.

The Skipton team is: G Heims; M Beech, W Berrey, A Porter, G Smithson; D Howson, A Oldfield; B Birks, N King, W Nicholson, A Phillip, B Strickland, P Wood, M Davison, A Winthrop (capt); reps B Burns, D Swinglehurst, A Rhodes, N Buck, A Farquhar.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.