Aspatria went down 17-5 at table-topping Northern in a game of some quality, played in near perfect conditions.
The Black Reds ran the Durham Northumberland One league leaders closer than the end score suggests and will give them confidence for the challenges coming up.
They start on Saturday with Westoe who currently occupy the fourth promotion slot coveted by Aspatria.
At Northern, the difference between the teams boiled down to execution when the try line beckoned.
Over the course of the game, Northern had a higher opportunity count than Aspatria but only slightly so. The crucial difference was that the home side proved more clinical in taking chances when they arose and this is something the Aspatria coaching team will be working hard on ahead of the Westoe visit.
Aspatria started the game with real intent and really should have opened the scoring. Cam Steele made a welcome return to the back row from injury and it was his 30-yard burst that put Aspatria at the try line with five minutes on the clock.
The ball was inches away from a score as the two packs did battle on the line, patience and precision might have paid off for Aspatria but in the face of some excellent defending they simply could not find a spark and lost possession.
When Northern broke downfield the Aspatria defence was left scrambling to get into position.
An overlap was created, which initially Northern failed to exploit, but Aspatria could not clear the danger.
When the ball was recycled the home back division had little opposition and ran in the try which was converted.
The frantic pace that Northern generated was troubling Aspatria but they accepted the challenge and despite the obvious pressure denied the home side any further opportunities.
A superb run upfield by number eight Gary Hodgson looked promising for the visitors until, deep in the home half, possession was turned over.
This fired the starting gun for another high octane attack by Northern which swept 60 yards to a point where Aspatria ran out of defenders and conceded the second try.
Play was increasingly encroaching into the Aspatria 22 and it took some fully committed defence from the Black Reds to hold out.
The siege was lifted on 30 minutes. Scrum-half Jack Clegg emerged from the back of a home line-out around ten yards from his try line and took the Northern defence by surprise with a dart up a narrow blindside.
The run was taken on by winger Alex Barton who combined with centre Ryan Scott to move play into Northern territory.
Life returned to Aspatria
Life had returned to Aspatria and got a touch better just before halftime when a home side player went to the bin for an illegal tackle.
In a repeat of the first half, Aspatria started the second phase of the game on the attack and were inches short of the try line.
The hard work was done courtesy of another impressive run from Hodgson with support from props Jack Gaskell and Craig Halligan. Play crept under the Northern posts where winger Tom Gardner’s charge for glory was abruptly ended by an uncompromising defensive challenge but Aspatria remained in possession and still had the opportunity to spread the ball wide left where a score seemed a near certainty.
At this point, the referee’s whistle produced a shrill blast and Gardner was walking to the sin-bin for use of ungentlemanly language directed towards his tacklers.
Despite the setback of not scoring and down to 14 men, Aspatria were now playing with a new intensity and taking the game to Northern.
It was the home side who, against the immediate run of play, secured the next try.
On 52 minutes Northern launched yet another blitz aimed at the Aspatria line. It was fast, it was efficient, it was clinical and it was try number three.
At 17-0, it would be harsh on Northern to say Aspatria from this point began to dominate, indeed much of the play was very evenly balanced but in a measure of territory, Aspatria began to gradually get on top of their opponents.
The problem of delivering a killing stroke, however, remained.
Hodgson’s running was a clear problem for the Northern defence throughout the game but by now he was getting good support from Phil Dixon, Matthew Atkinson and Gaskell who all made significant carries.
In the back division, the centre partnership of Joe Beaty and Scott was setting the home defence a series of problems.
At the 63 minute mark, Aspatria finally drew blood. Dixon’s run from centre field started a lengthy move and by the time it finished with a try at the left corner flag the majority of Aspatria players had some involvement. Fittingly it was Hodgson who finally got over.
Into the last 10 minutes and Aspatria were finishing strongly as all the play was now in the Northern half but chances and opportunities came and went.
Some of the fault lay in the execution but most of the credit for a failure to score has to be handed to a committed Northern defence; they simply were too good on the day.
