Heath dig deep to earn victory over strugglers
Third-placed Heath ground out a 13-3 home win against a spirited Scunthorpe side who are now bottom of Regional 1 North East.
The visitors started the brighter and took the lead with a penalty with 13 minutes played.
It wasn’t until a quarter of the game had been played that Heath managed to put pressure on the visitors' defence.
A superb kick from Dan Cole found touch in the corner and when Heath won lineout ball they strung together a number of passes before Saif Boussadda received the ball and was then fouled, resulting in a penalty that Ezra Hinchliffe converted to level the scores.
As the visitors then pressed the home defence, Alex McFadden collected the ball and set off on a superb run before passing to Callum Harriott-Brown, who kicked through.
Scunthorpe had no option but to give away a penalty and up stepped Hinchliffe to convert and give Heath the lead shortly before the break.
The second half began with Scunthorpe continuing to press for a score. With only five minutes played, Chris Johnson and Elliot Knight replaced Adam Brook and Peter Hampshire and from
Johnson's first kick he found touch five metres from the visitors’ line and a chance for Heath had arrived.
A period of pressure from the home side followed and when Johnson and Dan Cole linked up, Cole released Joe Morrison who managed to twist and turn through some strong cover tackling, before touching down for the opening try, converted by Johnson and Heath led 13-3 with 50 minutes on the clock.
Heath were now on the front foot, but they could not get through a resilient defence and it was Scunthorpe who began to look the more dangerous.
The hosts were fortunate to hold on to the lead when a move from the visitors broke down following a dropped pass with a try begging.
Scunthorpe did not give up as they went looking for a losing bonus point but a missed penalty conversion saw Heath hold on to secure the win.
With the festive cobwebs now blown away, Heath will be hoping to produce a better display in Saturday’s trip to Pontefract.
Meanwhile, Heath Hawks celebrated a convincing 5025 win over their Scunthorpe counterparts.