This was a Cleckheaton performance to savour.the opening exchanges were even and both sides were clearly attempting to play flowing rugby.
The visitors looked dangerous when in possession, but the confident home side more than matched their north east visitors. Morpeth scrum half Matt Jinks had an early chance to open the scoring but his penalty effort was wide.However,he was successful in the fifteenth minute with an excellent long range effort.
It was Cleckheaton who continued to build momentum with forwards and backs combining well.On the half hour mark a solid scrum provided the opportunity for James Wilson to nip in at the corner combining well with scrum half Oli Depledge.Iain Gordon converted from wide out.
The home side were now in control,Gordon dictating well,Murphy driving holes in the defence and Ross Hayden creating total confusion when running the ball back.The rewards were two further first half tries firstly from full back Hayden, a multi phase attack took play deep into the visitors 22, neat hands from Rich Piper and lock Turton allowed the elusive no15 to score in the corner, Hayden turned provider next when he raced down the left wing and fed the ball inside to centre Lee Queeley who raced over under the posts allowing Iain Gordon to convert.
In recent weeks Cleck have struggled to maintain pressure and performance throughout 80 mins and allthough Morpeth were more competitive in the early stages of the second half it wasn`t long before the home forwards were back in control providing plentyfull ball for the threequaters to constantly test the visiting defence.
Wilson doubled his try tally when Iain Gordon took the ball to the line,dummied the defence and provided the opening for the winger to crash over.Morpeth hit back with a try from prop Karl Campbell but it was Cleckheaton who finished stronger when Ed Chappelow capped a fine personal performance with a bullish try in the corner rounding off another Gordon break,carried on by Joe Gioti for an exellent score.