Late penalty denies Cleckheaton victory in close contest at Middlesbrough
Cleckheaton RUFC were unable to back up their fantastic derby win over Sandal from the week before as they were narrowly edged out by Middlesbrough in the Regional One North East.
After climbing off the bottom of the table with a marked improvement in performances in recent weeks the Moorend boys were looking to move up out of the bottom two relegation places on their trip to play opponents only two places above them in the table before kick-off.
But in a tight contest it was Middlesbrough who emerged victorious 26-24 to leave Cleckheaton three points behind third from bottom Sandal.
The visitors made a good start with a great break from 50 metres out that brought them the opening try, goaled by skipper Dale Breakwell.
Playing down the slope, Boro then exerted some pressure and an attempted clearance kick was charged down to result in a converted try to level the scores.
Aedan Moloney followed up by adding a penalty to his conversion to nudge the hosts ahead at 10-7.
Middlesbrough struck again just before half-time with a try out wide to lead 15-7 at the turn round.
Cleck made another good start to the second half with a drive from a line-out five metres out resulting in a try that was improved by Breakwell to bring them back to within a point.
A penalty gave Moloney the chance to send the ball between the posts to edge Boro to an 18-14 lead. And they then added a try to take command.
But back came the visitors with their third try to make it an exciting finish.
Breakwell kicked the conversion and soon after landed a penalty and suddenly Cleck were 24-23 ahead.
Now it was a case of holding on and there was relief when an attempted Boro penalty hit the post.
However, Maloney was given another chance a few minutes later and made no mistake to seal a 26-24 win.
At least Cleckheaton earned a losing bonus point for their efforts and they will look to get back to winning ways at home to Blaydon this Saturday.
They were in terrific form in their previous league game at Moorend, defeating Sandal 35-20, and were also victorious against York in their previous home game. Blaydon will be a tougher nut to crack, however, as they sit in fifth place.