In Sandal tie

the pressure of urgency didn’t help.

It looked as though they may be able to win back the momentum when Morton’s kick into the opposition 22 was chased down and turned over, and after an infringement the home side were able to maul over through Sam Moss to make it 15-19 on 64 minutes.

However silly mistakes, indiscipline and superior game management, by the visitors, meant the Priory Park team spent too much of the remaining time in the match, pegged back, yielding two penalties that secured the result – the second of which where the pack, who had been so superior at set piece in the opening exchanges were forced off their own ball under their posts after another handling error when trying to play from deep.

A penalty under Sandal’s posts, which would have secured a losing bonus point, was shunned.

With two minutes to play the home side must have felt they still had time to win the game, the kick to the corner was botched, which meant that Macc came away with nothing from this encounter, a damaging result on a day when Blaydon and Harrogate both took wins to take first and second place respectively.

Ultimately the conditions played into Sandal’s hands as their big pack won the physical elements of the game and Wood, their 10, nudged them around the field very well.

This weekend is another fallow week so the boys will have to wait until the week after to try and set the record straight against Blackburn, but may benefit from some time to regroup and allow their pitch to recover.

All is not lost as we have seen this season multiple times and the lead has changed hands four times in the last six weeks.

But with seven games of the season to go, four points behind in third, Macclesfield can’t afford another slip up.