North One East: Northern 20 Cleckheaton 17

CLECKHEATON'S third trip in a month north of Newcastle resulted in another loss.

But while the first two games were against opponents at the top of the North One East table - Morpeth and Alnwick - the latest fixture was against bottom club Northern.

Despite their lowly league position, however, the hosts played sufficiently well to take their chances and register two consecutive league victories, leaving Cleckheaton to mull over a long trip back down the A1 with a solitary losing bonus point, despite scoring three tries to two.

The visitors were suffering an availability crisis, with Thiu Barnard, Luke Pearson, Ryan Piercy, Lee Queeley and James Wilson all unavailable, while Pat Foulstone and Neil Cherryholme have joined their rugby league teams for the start of the summer National Conference League season.

This gave an opportunity for Cain Crotty and Matt Wood to join the starting line-up and for Craig Blackburn to be given another go, while  Rob Lowe made his first-XV league debut.

Cleckheaton started brightly and took the game to Northern for the first 10 minutes, playing up the slight incline at McCracken Park.

The visitors couldn’t convert the pressure to points though and it was Northern who went ahead with a penalty goal.

Cleckheaton then kicked into gear, and a good solid platform from the forwards created the opportunity for a backs move that put Ronan Evans through a large gap for Cleckheaton’s first try.

As the clock hit the 30-minute mark, a couple of penalties in quick succession gave Northern field position and when the third one followed, Cleck's Grant Fitzsimmons was shown a yellow card after intefering at a tap penalty.

Northern immediately used their numerical advantage, splitting Cleck’s defence for a walk-in try from 20 metres out.

With the scoreboard reading 10-5, there was still everything to play for, and the 14 men of Cleckheaton hit back with a try for Matt Piper.

The conversion from Mike Swetman gave the West Yorkshiremen a two- point lead, but as the first period entered its final minute, Northern’s winger tip-toed down the touchline for a try which gave his side a 17-12 advantage at the break.

The second half was one of missed opportunities for Cleckheaton.

Swetman turned back the clock with several galloping breaks, and Mikey Hayward also produced a number of incursions into opposition territory, despite nursing a pulled hamstring.

The frustrating part was that none of these were finished off, and either a loose offload, knock on or concession of a penalty let Northern off the hook.

The hosts extended their lead with a penalty goal before Cleckheaton gave themselves real hope when a line-out close to Northern’s line was driven over by the pack, with Andy Piper getting the touchdown to close the deficit to three points.

Cleckheaton about 12 of the last 15 minutes in or just outside Northern’s 22 and, despite recycling the ball for many phases, they could not squeeze that extra 1 per cent to turn pressure into points.

A final overtime infringement from Cleck deep in Northern’s territory allowed the home side to tap the ball and kick it backwards off the field to earn themselves a much-needed victory.