North One East: Bradford & Bingley 8 Dinnington 18

THERE was a definite end-of-season feel to this Bradford & Bingley performance, which contrasted sharply with the desire to get a win which was evident in the visitors' play.

Having said that, if the Bees had held on to the ball in a number of attacks deep into Dinnington territory then Martin Whitcombe's men could still have won this game, despite their poor performance for large parts of the game.

There were individuals in Bees colours who looked fully committed from first to last, with Brett Mitchell catching the eye with a number of gallops upfield.

Sam White, named as their man of the match, was always industrious, and Max Mountain was his usual nuisance at the ruck and maul, but there was still always something missing from the collective performance, particularly in the first half when Dinnington were able to run in scores after seven minutes, 12 minutes and right on the stroke of half-time.

The second score in particular was a thing of beauty as the visitors kept the ball alive through multiple phases, with backs and forwards showing some deft handling skills before the ball was dotted down to the left of the posts.

At this stage, any neutral observer might have thought it was clear which side has been on the periphery of promotion while the other was flirting with relegation, but they would have had the positions reversed as the Bees looked like the side threatened with the drop back to Yorkshire Division One.

Things did improve as the game wore on, but the Wagon Lane side were far from their best.

There seemed to be a desire to over complicate play, and there were also a number of mistakes which meant that the Bees were unable to fashion anything from useful attacking positions.

There was a consolation try, collected by Michael Crotch with five minutes to go, but with four league games left on the slate, the Bees need to shake off the end-of-season slumbers or this season will fizzle out disappointingly after so much positive play earlier in the season had almost moved the side into play-off contention.

The visit to Penrith on April 8 could be a very long afternoon at the office if a new sense of urgency is not restored to the Wagon Lane side.