ORRELL.......................20

Otley..........................23

OTLEY finally clinched a win to ease their relegation fears when they overcame Orrell on Saturday and narrowed the gap between the two sides to just one point. Otley left the field to thunderous applause as their large band of supporters expressed their joy at the way they had secured their second away win of the season.

With Manchester losing by the odd point to Wakefield things have been pulled tighter at the bottom end of the table. While Otley won the only teams below them, Exeter and Waterloo, both lost.

Try scoring chances were missed so Otley found themselves having to defend a six points lead for the last ten minutes - a period when the home side were restricted to a single penalty to give Otley the win.

The return of skipper Phil Griffin facilitated a re-arrangement of the back row with Lee Denham moving out to blind side flanker allowing Jon Burke to slot in at No 8 and this combination added strength to the always formidable front five.

Given first use of a strong downfield wind Otley looked dangerous but they suffered a setback when Orrell No 7 Mark Lloyd burst from a maul on his 22 to reach half-way and set up an attack. This culminated in left-winger Lee Wakeham going in at the corner.

This gave the home side confidence and they began to look dangerous in midfield but astute kicking from Andy Brown and his half-back partner Dan Clappison kept pegging them back. Otley edged in front with two penalties from the boot of Dan Clappison - the second bouncing over via the crossbar. When he was adjudged to have knocked on under the posts fly-half Dave Slemen kicked the penalty to give Orrell the lead.

Direct running from the Otley forwards had Orrell on the back foot and Robert Whatmuff was cynically felled with a high tackle as he was going in under the posts. The penalty which Clappison converted was poor reward.

Soon after Andy Brown went over only to have the ball dislodged from his grasp.

Old war horse Ian Carroll took to the field at half-time in place of the injured Peter Curtis and Otley made a rip roaring start to the second-half. Griffin was unable to hang on to a likely scoring pass but Otley wheeled the ensuing scrum to gain the put in and a pick up by Jon Burke saw him make ground allowing Paul Williams to crash over and Clappison added the goal points.

Slemen however hit back for Orrell landing two penalties, one from his own half, and he followed up with a drop goal to give his side the lead once more.

This was where Otley displayed their professionalism. A penalty into the home 22 led to a drive which was held near the line. A controlled heel saw Griffin waiting and he sealed his return to first team action with a midfield break which saw Lee Denham at his side to take the scoring pass.

As the touchdown was to the left of the posts the conversion was entrusted to Lofthouse and he made no mistake. This set up a grand finale but Otley deservedly held out for the points in a ding-dong battle over the closing minutes. Shuttleworth was pulled down after escaping down the touchline and Orrell tried everything they could but were only able to muster another Slemen penalty.

A little more luck would have secured another bonus point as twice possession was lost over the tryline but the manner of victory will have given Otley some confidence for their meeting with league leaders Worcester on Saturday.

Orrell.- Beauchamp; Roach, Craig, Welding, Wakeham; Slemen, Roxton (Newton 48 mins); Livesey (Hitchin 48 mins), Moffatt (Kelly 48 mins), Cundick, Cusani, Bentley, Cramant (Grainey 62 mins), Lloyd, Duncan.

Otley.- Shuttleworth; Lauriston (Hope 50 mins), Whatmuff, Billington, Kirkby (Lofthouse 62 mins); Clappison, Brown; Kelly, Sayers, Hall, Williams, Curtis (Carroll 40 mins), Burke, Griffin, Denham.