Altrincham Kersal 31 Northwich 21

BLACKS will learn a lot from their first defeat of the season.

With the absence of five senior players, they will take strength further down the South Lancashire/Cheshire Division One calendar for having got within striking distance of a strong Altrincham Kersal team.

Despite new faces and positional adjustments, Northwich earned themselves opportunities to claw back a deficit.

After going behind 12-0 inside 11 minutes to tries scored by John Bishop and Sean Clayton, a never-say-die attitude and period of pressure was rewarded on 35 minutes.

Yan Cartman pulled five points back from a controlled drive towards the hosts’ line after a lineout had been won.

Within a minute the veteran prop was shown a yellow card for deliberately killing the ball and Kersal assumed the initiative with a converted try by Peter Kilburn that provided a 19-5 interval lead.

The killer blow came after 44 minutes when a quickly-taken penalty was met with indifferent tackling and a further converted try by Tom King left Blacks with a mountain to climb.

In an effort to get back into the match Northwich elected to kick two penalty opportunities – both successfully converted by Chris Dutoy – and at 26-11 sensed that a recovery was possible.

When line-breaking work by Sam Naylor allowed Andy Chubb to score in the corner with 20 minutes left, it looked like the visitors could get something from the encounter.

However, in an effort to force the situation the ball was turned over by AK and they scored through King again after a gap opened from a wheeled scrum.

Skipper Chris Dale sprinted 40 metres to record the game’s final points for the visitors.

Northwich Cartman, Thompson, Hulbert, Smith, Gavin Heywood, Naylor, Chris Dale, Taylor, Dutoy, Edwards, Barber, Chubb, Wilson, Simes, Richard Dale Replacement Fallows Tries Cartman, Chubb, Chris Dale Pens Dutoy (2)