An 86th minute converted penalty try ripped a victory from Cleckheaton's grasp and with it valuable league points that seemed to be in the bag. The Moorenders will be ruing their indiscipline, which led to 3 of the team being sin-binned at different times in the game and also contributed directly to all of Sheffield's points.

After an evenly contested opening 15 minutes, Ronan Evans, getting his first start at stand-off, made a small break through Sheffield’s line. The same player re-involved himself quickly into the game and moments later threw out a long pass to Lee Queeley, who rounded his opposite winger for a try in the corner. Evans added the touch-line conversion. Cleckheaton’s defence was in fine form, showing plenty of urgency and any attacks Sheffield made were soon repelled but Jonny France did get the visitors on the board with a penalty after half an hour. However, Cleckheaton were looking the stronger side and added to their tally when the front row of Paul Turner, James Crowther and Andy Piper disrupted a Sheffield scrum and Jack Bickerdike reacted fastest, scooping up the loose ball and sprinting over for an unconverted try. As a result of an episode of very minor handbags and chatter following the score, Richard Piper was sin binned but at the break Cleckheaton looked good value with a 12-3 lead.

Cleckheaton were the better side with man of the match Jack Seddon having a fine game, whilst Sheffield were having a lack lustre day and making plenty of mistakes. The only thing that visitors were winning was the penalty count. The pack gave away penalty after penalty for not releasing, handling on the floor, coming in from the side and the other easy targets for the referee’s whistle. Paul Turner was sin-binned amidst this flurry of indiscretions and Jonny France increased Sheffield’s score with another shot at goal. Before Cleck were returned to full compliment, the visitors were given the field position and momentum for winger, Joe McHale, to squeeze in at the corner. France added the extras to give Sheffield the lead for the first time at 13-12. Cleckheaton hit back with determination and it was their opponents who were now on the receiving end of the whistle. After a line-out catch and drive in Sheffield's 22 was illegally felled, Cleckheaton opted for a quick tap and set up a rolling maul. Ryan Piercy took the ball at the back and muscled his way over. Evans added the conversion.

The game and the points looked to be in the bag when, with only a few minutes of normal time left, Tom Austin put in a massive hit to turnover possession mid-way inside Cleckheaton’s half. Unfortunately the ball was put out on the full from the resulting scrum and Sheffield were gifted possession deep into Cleckheaton's territory. Impregnable scrambling defence seemed to be keeping Sheffield at bay but in their desperation Cleckheaton were deemed guilty of not releasing the tackled player and Austin picked up Cleck's 3rd yellow card. With the 80 minutes up, Sheffield opted for a scrum and after 4 more penalties and re-scrummages, the referee lost patience and awarded a penalty try. The easy conversion, which was also the last play, deflated the Cleckheaton team and their crowd of supporters as it gave the visitors the game at 20-19.

The match was a lesson in how the conceding of penalties can hand a game to the opposition, no matter how well or otherwise they are playing on the day. Cleckheaton had some bright moments and looked to move the ball fluidly, whilst their defence was top drawer for the majority of the match. Victories seem hard to come by at the moment but next week Stockport are the guests at Moorend and if Cleckheaton can halve their penalty count they will surely be favourites to pick up their 3rd win of the season.