Missed kick the difference in tight clash

FOR the second successive away game, Moor travelled to St. Helens, this time to take on league-leaders West Park. With both teams on the same number of points, separated only by points difference, this promised to be a close encounter and so it proved to be with the result in the balance right up until the last kick of the game, some 10 minutes into injury time!

Moor registered the first score fo the day when fly-half Martin Shelley was on hand to provide prop James Brennan with a pass enabling the latter to score in the corner; skipper and full-back Danny Child just failing with the conversion.

The visitors continued to have the advantage and were eventually rewarded with another lineout from a penalty kick. This was won, which allowed their forwards to set up another drive, resulting in a penalty in front of the opposition posts, to provide Child with the simplest of kicks.

It wasn’t until injury-time at the break that Park opened their scoring, and unconverted try in the corner, and a half-time score of 8-5 to Moor.

This was somewhat disappointing as it meant that for the third league game in a row, Moor had conceded the dreaded ‘half-time try’ and left them rueing the number of missed opportunities having had most of the play in the first half.

From the beginning of the second half, it was apparent Moor intended to take the direct route through their forwards and within minutes had increased their lead with another penalty kick by Child.

But Park responded with a second unconverted try.

Moor then turned the ball over from the restart and counterattacked down the left and with a two to one overlap and the line at their mercy, the last pass was thrown forward.

Despite this blunder, Moor continued to pressurize through their forwards and were eventually awarded a penalty on the five-metre mark that lead to a Park prop being yellow-carded. Unsurprisingly, Moor elected to take a scrum and promptly drove the opposition pack back over their own line, where No. 8 Ben Jones touched down.

Despite being quite central, the ensuing conversion hit an upright and bounced agonizingly wide.

The final quarter of normal time belonged to the home side as they kept Moor on the back-foot. They forced Moor into conceding a penalty, which resulted in a converted try, enabling them to take the lead for the first time. It then transpired that as a result of this infringement, Moor had their own player sent to the sin-bin.

Even when restored to a full compliment, Moor continued to defend and with only a few minutes remaining, they failed to find touch with a relieving kick and Park immediately spun the ball along their three-quarter line, resulting in an unconverted try in the corner.

Now in injury-time and needing a converted try to win the game, Moor were thrown a lifeline as they repeatedly drove at the opposition line. Eventually, the ball was transferred along the three-quarters for Shelley to touch down midway along the try line. It meant Child needed to convert the try, with what would be the last play. Unfortunately for Moor, the kick drifted away, with the Park players jubilant when it became obvious the ball would not reach the crossbar, giving them the narrowest of victories.

Moor are away again on Saturday against Didsbury Toc H at Ford Lane, kick off 2.15pm.