WINNINGTON Park produced an improved display with a spirited finish to seal a bonus-point home win 23-21 against Vale of Lune on Saturday.
They trailed 21-13 with 10 minutes remaining but crossed twice through Ross Morrin and Charlie Hyde to snatch their success.
VoL broke the first-half deadlock with a great cross-field kick to the winger for an easy unconverted try.
Park worked hard for field position and got the reward of a penalty five metres out and Ben Lilley powered over to on 38 minutes to level matters for the turnaround The visitors regained the lead with a penalty on 44 minutes but a couple of minutes went in front for the first time.
After Hyde was tackled from a quickly taken penalty, Park recycled quickly twice leading to Cameron Flanagan and Chris Twigg combining to put Nathan Taylor over on the short side.
An exchange of penalties left Park 13-11 in front, but not for long.
VoL ran the ball out of their 22, the winger chipped through for their fly-half to chase and the ball was kicked through again before pouncing for an unconverted try.
Six minutes later the visitors were in again from a scrum on the 10-metre line, extending their lead to 21-13 Park now needed a massive last 10 minutes in order to salvage the result.
Great phase play from the forwards earned a penalty which was kicked to the corner where the lineout was won to set up a driving maul which powered over the line for Morrin to touch down an unconverted try.
This brought a nail-biting end to the game, with Park only having five minutes left to close the three-point gap.
The whole team dug deep and worked hard to gain territory into the VoL 22, but the ball was kicked away and it appeared to give the visitors the opportunity to close the game out.
VoL won a lineout with less than a minute on the clock and took the ball into contact, only for Park to steal possession and after some great hands Hyde was there to dive over and score the winning bonus point try.
The win sees Park move up to eighth place in Regional 2 North West ahead of Saturday’s trip to fourth-place Crewe and Nantwich.
Team: Chris Twigg, Dan Davenport, Charlie Hyde, Bradley Marshall, Nathan Taylor, James Weeks, Cameron Flanagan, Ben Lilley, Matt Treacy, Evan Boucher, Alex Grogan, Jarred Lange, Shaun Underdown, Mike Gough, Ross Morrin, Jake Cornwell, Joe Hickey, Luke Westgate.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here