A strong Northern side endured several nervous moments late in the game before ending Aspatria’s lively challenge for the spoils with a 31-18 victory.
The five points Northern secured were hard earned and deserved and with the Christmas break reached those points will be enough to keep them in second place.
It also marks them out as the only team who have a realistic chance of overhauling fly away league leaders, Percy Park.
Aspatria end 2023 comfortable in 6th place but this will not satisfy the Bower Park coaching team who will be looking to push for the top three in the new year.
A number of plus points emerged at Northern, possibly the best of these being the return to action of winger Ross Barton who has missed near a season of rugby through injury.
Barton’s electric pace is certain to trouble defences in the second half of the season.
Aspatria sent a strong team to Northern but due to player injury or unavailability those selected in the back division had never played together as a unit and in some of the early exchanges this showed.
Northern proved ruthless in taking advantage of uncertainty in the Aspatria defence and quickly raced into a 12 point lead.
A bright start by Aspatria soon evaporated as Northern’s slick backline took possession around halfway and ran near unopposed to the Aspatria line.
The attack was ended but at the cost of a goal line drop-out whereby the kick handed possession back to Northern and this time they made no mistake.
It was fierce stuff from the Northern backs who kept the pressure on. They missed one golden opportunity to increase the 5-0 lead but another score seemed inevitable and this came when Aspatria messed up an exit from the 22 and handed Northern an early Christmas present.
As play progressed Aspatria started to deliver some blows of their own. After a couple of promising forays into the Northern half a well struck penalty by Ryan Scott put three points on the board but overall it was still the home side who seemed to have a vice like grip on the game.
After 25 minutes of play a superb backs move by Northern was rewarded by a third try, again exploiting some indecision in the Aspatria backline.
At 17-3 it looked as if the game would be one-way traffic. It may well have been but for Aspatria’s forwards who were gradually getting the better of their Northern counterparts and in doing so providing enough possession for the backs to find a level of cohesion.
This paid off when the excellent Scott, operating at stand-off, put in a grubber kick to the line and the race to the ball was won by second row Chris Graham, a young player who is growing in stature with every game he plays.
It looked as if the 17-8 score line would be taken to half-time but with the last play Northern struck.
Aspatria were down to 14 with hooker Adam Cavanagh yellow carded. Successive penalties yield provided Northern with prime position close to the Aspatria line.
The home side was clinical in execution and scored the bonus point fourth try, securing what looked like a match-winning lead of 24-8.
Into the second half and there was a remarkable turn-about in the fortunes of the teams.
An early Scott penalty reduced the deficit and from this point Aspatria began to dominate play.
Week-in-week-out the Aspatria scrum has been ripping opponents apart and this was no different.
Northern simply had no answer as the visitors parked themselves in the home 22 and refused to leave. The only issue to overcome was some last-ditch defence offered by Northern.
This was good enough several times, although the referee must have been close to considering a penalty try as the home scrum disintegrated.
In the end his intervention was not required as Aspatria surprised their opponents with an early release to the backs where Scott was waiting to force his way over the line.
It was now 24-and pla18 and moving into the final quarter with Aspatria still pressing for a try that might provide a losing bonus point.
Even a win did not look out of the question in the subsequent passages of play.
Northern, had other ideas and as the clock wound down regained composure and took the game back to Aspatria.
On 67 minutes Northern failed with a long range penalty. Surprisingly this was their first attack of any intent into Aspatria territory.
With 10 minutes remaining Northern ended hope of an Aspatria comeback. It was a piece of brilliant play by the home scrum half who took the ball from a scrum on halfway and simply ran through a tired Aspatria defence to dot down under the posts.
Aspatria looked tired but were not yet done and in the closing minutes doggedly chased a try that might provide a deserved losing bonus point.
Despite engineering a short series of positions deep in the home 22 the final breakthrough would not come leaving the Black Reds with nothing except the certain knowledge that this squad of players is capable of mixing it with any team in Regional 2 North.
