Cleckheaton 31 Huddersfield YMCA 13

FACING opponents who had beaten Cleckheaton in five of their last six league encounters, and on the back of a defeat at lowly West Hartlepool last time out, the home side had every reason to feel nervous before they kicked off against Huddersfield YMCA.

However, apart from a spell in the first half where their discipline threatened to undermine their efforts, the hosts not only managed to keep their derby rivals at arm's length but they picked up a full house of points to move further away from the North One East relegation zone.

Player-coach Thiu Barnard said: "It was a much better performance than last week and defensively we were much better. We also attacked really well and we scored a couple of good team tries.

"Everybody played well but if I had to pick out any individuals, they would be (flanker) Brad Marsden (Cleckheaton's man of the match), who was very good, (hooker) Ben Thrower, who played really and put himself about, and (centre) Matt Piper, who was very good."

The win on a chilly afternoon moved Cleckheaton up one place to eighth before their week off but, when asked what he thought his team were capable of for the rest of the season, a guarded Barnard – who is holding himself in reserve as a player – said: "We are just taking things week by week and the next match is Malton & Norton away on November 25."

In a game where exchange referee Tom Falkingham (Gloucester Society) missed some infringements on both sides but not to the detriment of the result, YM were piggy-backed into Cleckheaton's 22 by successive early penalties, with former Bradford & Bingley back Gavin Stead kicking the visitors ahead off the tee in the seventh minute.

The home team's attack was not quite gelling, such as when fly half Mike Swetman threw the ball directly into touch – an error YM repeated later in the half – but their most cohesive attack so far brought them reward in the 17th minute, when they also profited from consecutive penalties.

The kick to the corner gave Cleckheaton a line-out seven metres from the YM line in the right corner.

Thrower safely found target Luke Pearson and the ball was moved left for Swetman to employ the best hand-off I have seen all season, which gave himself just enough room to make the try line, although he still needed some brute strength to get there.

Swetman converted to make it 7-3 but with visiting flanker Sam Hodge proving elusive all afternoon, YM hit back with a second Stead penalty in the 20th minute to reduce the deficit to a point.

Good work by Swetman and scrum half Jack Bickerdike took Cleckheaton to the edge of YM's 22 without reward – and there was collective heart failure on the half-hour when an ambitious Swetman pass was almost intercepted, the visiting attacker not quite being able to reel in the pass via his fingertips when a clean catch would surely have brought a try.

The fly half was soon in action at the other end, however, capitalising on a strong run by Matt Piper to score his second try after 36 minutes.

Leading 14-6 at the interval, Cleckheaton took a major step towards victory with their third try in the 46th minute.

Right winger Mikey Hayward was brought to ground but not held and was able to scramble to his feet and make more yards before finding resilient No 8 Jack Seddon, who linked well to put full back James Wilson in for a try.

Swetman's conversion extended the lead to 21-6 but although another fine hand-off by Stead enabled the visiting centre to break through and score a try that he converted himself after multiple phases four minutes later, I never had the feeling that Cleckheaton were going to let the initiative go.

Swetman added a penalty on the hour and even though lock Ryan Piercy was sin-binned for a high tackle, YM – who lost lock Jack Housley soon after Swetman's penalty with what appeared to be cramp – could not take advantage of having a man more.

Hayward's run out of defence relieved pressure and they put the icing on the cake in the 70th minute when replacement Ronan Evans finished off another sweet attack.

Swetman's conversion made it 31-13 and the home side managed to keep the visitors, who had former Cleckheaton player Michael Piper at fly half and ex-Cleckheaton coach Gordon Piper in charge of their pack, to only one try, despite them being held up over the home side's line on the last play of the match.