North One East: Malton & Norton 27 Bradford & Bingley 29

WHEN 17-year-old Connor Capper jogged on to make his first-team debut from the bench early in the second half, he became the 32nd player Martin Whitcombe has used in the seven games of this campaign.

Bradford & Bingley have rarely been able to field the same starting combination at half-back or centre, and with the home backs intermittently showing an alarming turn of pace, it seemed inevitable that cracks would begin to appear in the visitors' defence as the game wore on.

It was 10-10 at half-time, and the home support at The Gannock must have thought the game was in the bag as Xolela Payi gathered a wayward kick in his own 22 and belted a return kick over the head of young Capper and hared after the loose ball.

Payi's pace took him to the ball first and he went over the whitewash and converted to make it 17-10, with the home side beginning to gain the upper hand.

However, they could not sustain the pressure and with the Bees' next venture into Malton territory, the in-form Tom Cummins was last man off a maul to dot down, Schalk Oosthuizen – playing out of position at fly half – levelled the scores.

Oosthuizen, whose booming kicks downfield kept the visitors in the game, had opened the scoring for the Bees with an early penalty and added the conversion of his own try to claim all the Bees points in the first half as he showed sleight of hand to wrong-foot the defence and race to the line.

Payi had also scored Malton's first try, again showing his sprinting prowess, but it was an error from the Bees which gave the ball back to their hosts for the next score as a kick landed with left winger Blake Spencer, who is possibly quicker than Payi and ripped through some poor tackling to zip home from over 40 metres.

The home side were now ten points clear and should really have closed down the game but, displaying some naivety, they were unable to shut up shop.

They had been similarly slow to capitalise in the first half as Bradford & Bingley lost both props to the sin-bin - Michael Crotch after a succession of scrum penalties and Ryan Wederell for an unsolicited appraisal of how the scrum should be refereed.

With the Bees trailing 27-17, Malton seemed unwilling to boot the ball off the field or keep play away from their 22.

Although this was a disrupted Bees backline, they still have players who can make the most of broken-field play and, as a move swept into the home 22, youngster Ryan Wilson flew up his wing to dot down.

Oosthuizen was again assured with the extra points and with less than three minutes on the clock it seemed all the home side had to do was hang on to the ball.

The Bees knew that the Malton pack can keep grinding away up the middle of the field for an age as they had done for whole periods of the two encounters last season but they somehow turned the ball over and were suddenly only yards from the home line.

The ball went through a couple of pairs of hands and was with forwards' coach Ali Macdonald, and the experienced Welshman did not need a second invitation to get over the whitewash and an unlikely victory was in the bag.

Bees' director of rugby Martin Whitcombe said: "That was a proper team performance. It was all about guts and determination and playing for the full 80 minutes.

"There are players throughout the team I could single out but I will just make a special mention of Connor Capper and Ryan Wilson.

"We have a few good youngsters coming through and Connor is one of those lads we have been looking at.

"Ideally we wanted him to get established in the second team and then bring him on to the first team.

"Circumstances have dictated that plan went out of the window last Thursday night and we registered him and here he is playing.

"He can be proud of how he did. Similarly with Ryan. He was earning some great reviews for the 'twos' all last season and we wanted to gradually bring him through.

"Again that plan changed and I think he now has three tries this season in the first team and is getting better every week."

The five-point win lifts the Bees to eighth, and they entertain Driffield – the side immediately above them – on Saturday.