Aspatria ended this first season in the Regional 2 North League with a defeat – 24-17 at home to Morpeth, in fact the fourth in a row.
Not a welcome end to the campaign but there was still ample good news to lift the mood at Bower Park.
Aspatria gave league runners-up, Morpeth a real challenge, leading their illustrious opposition going into the last quarter. More importantly the Black Reds have met this season’s prime objective, with something to spare, which was to consolidate last season’s promotion.
In the league, Morpeth will finish as runners-up to an outstanding Penrith side. They went into this final game as firm favourite and in the final quarter of the game had the quality and composure to snatch victory, despite a battling display from Aspatria that only just fell short.
Morpeth opened brightly and a first foray into the Aspatria 22 seemed destined to deliver an opening score but they were denied by a fine defensive intervention from left wing, Alex Barton. The same player then opened the scoring at the other end after ten minutes.
Barton was the last man at the end of a beautifully co-ordinated backs move in which centre Joe Beaty played a pivotal part. Jack Clegg converted.
It was only a temporary setback for Morpeth who struck back a couple of minutes later. The disappointment for Aspatria was that they handed field position to Morpeth through errors and the visitors made no mistake in taking the opportunity.
The Morpeth score went unconverted but the lead did change hands on 17 minutes with a well struck penalty to put the visitors 8-7 to the good but overall the play had been finely balanced.
In the run up to halftime both teams had chances to improve their position but good defence all round kept the scoreboard quiet. The Aspatria pack changed this deadlock with a scrum on 32 minutes when, against the head, they pushed Morpeth off the ball.
In the confusion that followed Morpeth conceded a penalty and Clegg was able to regain the lead for Aspatria.
Morpeth finished the half strongly, again Aspatria returned possession to them in midfield, heralding an unwanted period of pressure before the whistle.
The home guard was solid, efficiently holding out with stand-off, Ryan Scott making an important contribution to regain the ball but in the defensive action Aspatria lost influential scrum half Clegg to injury.
The second period could not have started better for Aspatria. They attacked Morpeth from the outset and within a few minutes strong scrummaging close to the 22 provided the platform for Barton, now at scrum half, to launch an attack involving his back row collaborators, creating space for Stuart Creighton to go over near the posts and establish a 17-8 lead.
Aspatria looked comfortable but Morpeth struck next. The visitors had a penalty some way out from the posts and the obvious decision seemed to be to go for touch and mount a challenge from the lineout.
Instead they decided to go for goal and the well struck attempt added three points to their total. At the time it seemed almost a let-off for Aspatria.
The game moved well into the final quarter before Morpeth delivered a killing blow. When it came around 66 minutes in, it was a fluent move that deserved a score. The try was converted and the visitors edged into an 18-17 lead.
For the final ten minutes of the game Aspatria threw all they had at Morpeth but some well thought through game management delivered the win and proved to be the difference between the two sides on the day.
It was a very pragmatic approach from Morpeth, killing hopes of a comeback with two late penalty attempts that both ate up the clock and delivered the points.
