WINNINGTON Park dug deep to pull back a large deficit in the second half of their season-opening 38-38 draw at Altrincham Kersal.

There are clearly things to work on over the coming weeks in Regional 2 North West, but there were also some great passages of play with some notable performances across the team Park welcomed some new faces into the fold with league debuts handed to Roan Cornwell, Daniel Gregory, Frankie Gibbons, Joe Hickey and Bradley Marshall under the captaincy of James Johnson.

Cameron Flanagan converted a penalty for an early lead.

Some AK pressure paid off with an unconverted try in the corner.

Park were working hard in attack but were struggling to find the clinical last pass, but AK continued to pressure Park and capitalised on a chip kick not gathered in by Park for a converted try on 12 minutes (12-3).

A cut to the head forced Bradley Marshall off the field on 15 minutes but Park got themselves on the front foot with some great carries by the forwards and were awarded a couple of penalties which led to a close-quarter try by Gary Dykes, converted by Flanagan (12-10). The hosts, who produced a very good defensive performance in the first half, then scored three converted tries in eight minutes to open up an impressive 31-10 lead.

Their discipline started to cause them problems though with the first of four yellow cards on 38 minutes.

Park capitalised on this, and 18-year-old Roan Cornwell scored a great try on his league debut which Flanagan converted.

AK were hit with another yellow card in the first 10 minutes of the second half but they scored their sixth and last try following some great carries and Park not quite making the tackles stick.

The game looked to be out of reach at 38-17 but the whole team stepped up a gear in the last quarter of the game.

From a scrum 10 metres out Park went to the short side and with great support play Matt Treacy scored in the corner, with Flanagan converting.

Park were looking a lot sharper and on 33 minutes from another scrum five metres out Charlie Hyde who walked through the AK backline to score another converted try (38-31).

From the re-start, Park quickly got themselves back on the front foot with eventually Joe Hickey breaking through the AK defence and stretching over to score the match-levelling converted try.

Park: Chris Twigg, Roan Cornwell, Charlie Hyde, Bradley Marshall, Liam Geary, Cameron Flanagan, James Johnson, Ross Morrin, Gregor Purves, Daniel Gregory, Joe Hickey, Frankie Gibbons, Matt Treacy, Gary Dykes, Dan Williams, Bruce McGrogan, Tom Merrick, Kieran Taylor