Full commitment and grit just about sums up what Aspatria had to deliver to achieve a 39-29 win over South Shields Westoe at Bower Park.
The five points gained keeps Aspatria in the race for a top four league finish in Durham Northumberland One.
A defeat for Aspatria would have ended any ambition to overhaul fourth-placed Westoe but for the moment the fight goes on.
This game was an out and out slug fest with neither team able to exert total control. This was true up until the 72nd minute when Aspatria had built what seemed a match winning advantage of 13 points.
In the next few minutes of normal play, and a lengthy period of extra time, this buffer was tested to the limit by Westoe.
The opening spell was dominated by Aspatria and it was just reward that they scored the first try after six minutes.
Westoe had weathered the early pressure and were in possession moving dangerously towards the halfway line when a pass that should not have been made went into the hands of Alex Barton.
Aspatria’s left wing had nothing to do except run 40 yards unopposed to dot down in the corner.
From this point Westoe enjoyed most of the possession but failed to break down a solid Aspatria defence.
Into the second quarter of the game and Aspatria extended the lead with a move started by centre Joe Beaty, deep in his own half. Beaty had the Westoe defence back-pedalling and this gave right winger, Ross Barton plenty of space to work with as he took over and charged towards the corner flag.
Barton was tackled a couple of yards short of the line but full-back Andrew Miller was in support and able to take the ball over the line for the second try.
Westoe responded by demonstrating why they are in the promotion mix with a superbly executed move.
The build-up play was near perfect and fully warranted ending in a try to bring the visitors back into contention.
Aspatria were not about to let their narrow advantage slip and on 28 minutes quick thinking rewarded them with a third try. There was no apparent danger as Aspatria were awarded a line-out just inside the Westoe half but a quick put-in caught Westoe still lumbering into their defensive positions.
The ball went like a bullet out to the centre of the field where back row Phil Dixon took it on to beat some static defenders and raced under the posts to re-establish the ten point gap.
Almost from the restart Westoe engineered a two man overlap close to the Aspatria line but inexplicably failed to use it.
Just when it looked as if Aspatria would survive through to half time Westoe struck from the back of a five metre scrum. A poorly defended narrow blind side was fully exploited but from an Aspatria perspective it was a soft try to give away at a vital time in the game.
The second half kicked off with Westoe 17-12 behind but with clear and obvious momentum. From the outset they were rampant and it was no surprise that with only four minutes on the clock that they took the lead for the first time with a third try that was not badly defended, it was just unstoppable.
This game was slowly developing into the Black Reds best performance of the season.
On 51 minutes they regained the lead with a fourth bonus point try. It was a true classic from powerhouse forward, Matthew Atkinson. He had possession deep in the Westoe 22 but had several defenders in front of him and at both sides. They tried to go high and were skittled right and left as Atkinson crashed under the posts for 24-19.
On 60 minutes Joe Beaty extended the lead with try number five.
The start of the move was on the right where debutant centre Matty Irving created the opportunity with a darting run into the Westoe half.
The ball was then shifted by the Aspatria back division to the opposite flank where Beaty took control and proved unstoppable.
Aspatria increased the lead to 32-19 courtesy of a Jack Clegg penalty and the home side seemed fully capable of holding onto this advantage.
Westoe had clearly not read the script and scored a late fourth try to secure a bonus point.
Then, with what most watching thought was the final move of the game Westoe took full advantage of crumbling Aspatria defence and dragged the score back to 32-29.
In fact a further seven minutes plus was added and it could have gone so badly wrong for Aspatria.
To their credit they restored order in the ranks and were able to control ball possession. Not only that they finished in style with Alex Barton registering his second try of the game following a pacey run down the left wing, skirting around the cover defence to dive in and begin the celebration of a well deserved win.
