Moor suffer agonising defeat at Duki

DESPITE having to cancel home matches this weekend due to waterlogged pitches, Moor’s game at Dukinfield went ahead, where their pitch held up well despite the wet and wintry conditions.

Coach Steve Nicholas also had the luxury of picking from an almost full complement of players, which would be needed if the side was to perform well against a team some three places above them in the league table and with the second-highest number of points scored. Moor also had the added impetus of avenging the defeat in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.

Moor opened their account following a delicate chip ahead by fly-half Mark Edwards, which full-back Matt Hughes ran through to collect and score wide out; the conversion being missed.

This lead was not held for long, as Dukinfield’s full-back scored their opening try after a short spell of pressure on their visitor’s line. For the rest of the opening half, Moor had more than their fair share of possession and field position, with their forwards making life difficult for their opposite numbers in the set scrums, providing a lot of ball for their back line and disrupting the opposition’s put-ins. They could not, however, break through the Dukinfield defence and only had a further penalty kick by Edwards to show for their effort.

Just as it seemed that Moor would maintain this narrow lead to the interval, Dukinfield were awarded a penalty in the closing minutes, which they kicked to touch deep in the Moor half and from the resultant lineout, they produced a driving maul, which resulted in a converted try.

From the restart, it was obvious the home side were determined to keep the ball in hand among their forwards and maintain pressure on the Moor line, before letting it out to their backs. This they did with great success and for almost the whole of the third quarter, were camped inside the Moor ‘22.’ It was now the visitor’s turn to defend, which they did magnificently well and in the end, Dukinfield came away with nothing for their efforts.

This revitalised Moor as they regained the upper hand. Edwards put another chip ahead for Hughes to beat the defence to touch down, with Edwards kicking the conversion.

With the lead retaken, Moor continued to edge the game, but with just over 10 minutes to go they had a player sin-binned and from the resultant kick and lineout Dukinfield took advantage of the extra man to score out wide.

From the restart, Moor returned to the opposite end of the field and despite their handicap, had chances to win the game on at least two occasions, but both these were squandered.

In the dying seconds and returned to a full complement of players, Moor looked as if they would score, but the final scoring pass was spilt and the referee blew the whistle to end the game 19-15 to the opposition.

Just as in the previous week, Moor had done enough to win the game and should have done so, but this time it was not to be.

This was a very disappointing result for Moor and even the consolation of a losing bonus point did not do much to assuage the failure to come out on top.

Moor host bottom club Eagle at Green Lane on Saturday, kick off 2.15pm.