Bradford & Bingley 19, Birkenhead Park 20

Bradford & Bingley slipped back to sixth in the SSE National League Three North table after yesterday's defeat and now find themselves ten points adrift of the play-off spot with ten games to play.

The Bees director of rugby Martin Whitcombe said: "Im very disappointed with this result.

"We knew beforehand that Birkenhead would be a good outfit but we have to believe we can beat anyone at home.

"We have to target our home games and we have win them if we are going to do well in this division. We did all the hard work to pull this game back to within a point at 19-20 with nearly 20 minutes still on the clock and we just could not put the game away.

"It is particularly disappointing because we know that this same group of players is capable of taking hold of a game and controlling it to press home the win, like we did against Chester and Darlington Mowden Park, but this time we just could not do it.

"This result might just be the defining moment of our season as a win would have kept us in the top four and would have put us right up there with Chester and Rossendale."

In fact the Bees came within a whisker of stealing the win as the pack engineered good field position in front of the posts to set up a drop goal with the very last play of the game - exactly as they had done against table-toppers Mowden Park before Christmas.

With the position set, Giles Hetherington stepped in field to line up the shot at goal but the winger sliced his shot wide of the uprights, and Birkenhead claimed the win.

Despite the very heavy conditions, the Bees got out of their blocks quickest and their bright opening was rewarded in the second minute with a score from Hetherington, who zipped over for his eighth try of the season.

Gavin Stead could not add the extras so the Bees led 5-0.

Birkenhead Park came right back at the Bees and within three minutes were level as wingman Robert Houliston dotted down.

With the heavy conditions, it was to be expected that the game would revolve around the packs, and both sets of forwards pride themselves on their abilities in the tight but the Park front row are also known to be frequent visitors to the scoresheet, and on 24 minutes loose-head prop Tom Cassidy added another five-pointer to their collection.

With full back Dave Hall tacking on the extra points and then adding a penalty, Park were suddenly 15-5 ahead.

The Bees kept playing right until the whistle blew and their endeavour was rewarded right on half-time as skipper Guy Ford wrestled his way to the line. Stead was good with the extra points and there were now only three points in the game with the elements behind the Bees in the second half.

The game remained evenly balanced, but on 52 minutes a second member of the Park front row drove over the line, pushing his side eight points clear.

Veteran prop Martin O'Keefe was the scorer but with the wind and rain in their favour, the score did not look insurmountable for the home side.

As the game entered the final quarter, the home pack managed to battle to the line, with prop Ryan Wederall claiming the score.

Stead added two points, leaving the Bees almost 20 minutes in which to claim any kind of score to win the game.

It was not to be and the Bees travel to bottom club Altrincham Kersal next week to try and get back to winning ways.