Birkenhead Park 13 - 20 Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton travelled to Birkenhead Park with several enforced changes to the side which narrowly lost to Rochdale last week.
Dom Castle was back at scrum half ,Nick Wainright made a rare appearance in the full back role , Matt Beasty started instead of the unavailable Matt Burrows  and Olly Depledge came in on the right wing.
Park have had a reasonable season with 13 wins to their credit, undefeated at home and are renowned for their big experienced  pack.
The home side had the first use of the slope and stiff breeze and used these elements to keep Cleck pinned into their own 22 metre area for the first fifteen minutes .The Cleck defence was resolute and their tenacity was such that they were able to stop and turn Park’s main avenue of attack ,the rolling maul, on several occasions. Eventually and over eager defender strayed off-side and Dave Hall kicked a penalty for Park.This set back spurred Cleck to up their game, quickly spreading the ball wide to use their back three players to out flank the home side and move the ponderous Park pack around. Ross Hayden,  this week on the left wing ,was getting plenty of opportunities to get past his opponent and take play into the home side’s twenty two.
Once there the Cleck forwards showed cohesion and patience  to pick and drive to good effect ,eventually it was Park’s turn to stray off-side ,Iain Gordon goaled the resultant penalty in the twenty first minute.
Both sides exchanged further penalties, with the scores at six all, the first half was running out as Cleck mounted a last attack. Fly –half Gordon went blind and by twisting and turning almost made the line, the forwards arrived in numbers, allowing Ryan Piercy to drive over from a yard out, Gordon converting from near the touchline to give Cleck a 13 -6 lead at the break.
Gordon’s first half success with the boot encouraged him to have a go at goal almost from half –way when Cleck were awarded a penalty just after the restart ,unfortunately his perfectly struck kicked rebounded off a post with height to spare. Cleck might have thought that with the elements now in their favour the game was going to be easier but they were rapidly reminded that their work rate and focus of the first half would have to be maintained when Park broke out of defence ,forced a ruck near the Cleck line and were awarded a penalty try, when a desperate defender illegally interfered with the attempted touch down.
At thirteen points apiece with thirty minutes to go the game was all to play for, fortunately  the Cleck pack  was outlasting the Park eight so were able to keep the home side in their own half with the assistance of some intelligent kicks downfield from all of the Cleck  backs . Stand-in right winger ,Ollie Depledge showed good footballing skills  to go close on a couple of occasions but it wasn’t until the seventieth minute, after another of Depledge’s darts, that Cleck’s close quarter support enabled the industrious Rich Piper to power over near touch, again Gordon converted from wide out to give Cleck the winning margin and four points in their fight against relegation.
An excellent team effort from a side with four personnel and three positional changes to the previous week’s line up  taxing coach Dave Harrison’s ingenuity ,the two stand in wing men of Ross Hayden and Ollie Depledge revelled in the freedom of quick ball and young Matt Beasty played his full part in the line-out and around the park ,although the sight of a twenty two stone of Park prop heading towards him was not for the faint hearted.  
 In a season with only five wins to their credit Cleck have beaten mid –table Park both at home and away , inflicting Park’s first home defeat this season.