Chester 16 - 12 Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton head coach Dave Harrison was not a happy man on Saturday evening. It was not necessarily an unjust scoreline in defeat to Chester, nor indeed some questionable decisions from North Wales referee Iwan Williams.Of some irritation was his team's lack of basic discipline, of the continued inability to hold on to a lead and the ongoing feeling that this team should be doing better than it is. To gain 4 losing bonus points from 6 league matches reflects the closeness of all the games this season,but this is no consolation when the major motivation is to win.

Cleck had chances early on in the game to put points on the board but Ross Hayden was twice wide with penalty efforts. In the 16th minute, however Hayden eased Cleck into a deserved lead with his first successful penalty. Both defences were strong but the visitors ability to make yards with controlled rolling mauls meant a big territorial advantage in the first 20 minutes. In the 24th minute Chester were reduced to 14 men when mobile back row Andy Moore was given a yellow card for preventing release of the ball. Shortly afterwards Cleckheaton took advantage of their numerical superiority when Ross Hayden put his team further ahead with another penalty. Chester hit back just prior to the break but their efforts were repelled by a gallant Cleck defence and the 6 point lead at half time just about reflected the state of play.

The first action of the second half was a penalty chance for Chester's stand off Rhys Hayes. Fortunately for Cleckheaton the kick was off target but the penalty count began to rise for the visitors as the home side started for the first time, to exert pressure through their backs.Frustrations surfaced in the heat of the battle and Richard Piper was given a red card for punching in the 48th minute. One minute later Chester reduced the arrears when Rhys Hayes kicked a penalty and in the 53rd minute he levelled the scores with his second successful effort.

Things went from bad to worse when skipper Paul Turner was yellow carded for slowing down release of the ball, another sanction hardly reflecting the nature of the offence. Cleck were now down to 13 men and on the hour mark Chester went into the lead for the first time when winger Gareth Coy was allowed go over wide out with the majority of the crowd expecting play to come back for a blatant knock on, obviously unseen by the official. The conversion attempt failed but Cleck now had it all to do.

In the 67th minute Ross Hayden reduced the arrears to 2 points with his third successful penalty kick and with Chester reduced to 14 men once more when hooker Gareth Evans was sent to the sin bin, Pete Murphy regained the lead for Cleck with an opportunist drop goal in the 75th minute of normal time.

Chester renewed their efforts and took play into Cleck's 22. From a defensive line out possession was once more won cleanly by Ryan Piercy. The ball was cleared but kept in play and the Chester backs shifted the onus of attack to the left hand side of the field. Cleck's resources were slow to see the danger and player coach Simon Verbickas cut through for the winning try in the final minute of normal time.

There were plenty of frayed nerves on the touchline as Chester held out for what, or the majority of the match seemed an unlikely victory and the visitors were left to contemplate both their misfortune and another 'gallant' bonus point.