West Park St Helens  15  Macclesfield  13

Macclesfield’s run of league successes came to an abrupt end at Red Rocks on Saturday in a close fought encounter and whilst overall the home side deserved the spoils they were perhaps fortunate, in a fractious game, to have a full compliment on the park at the final whistle as they completed a ‘double’ over the Blues.

West Park kicked off in heavy rain on a soft pitch and all the early play came from the home side with Andrew Souter missing a penalty after 3 minutes but being on target a short while afterwards after Centre – David Cunliffe- strode through absent defence to score by the sticks.

Ross Winney landed a penalty on 18 minutes – virtually the first time that the Blues strayed into home territory – to narrow the scores but despite the score line remaining that way until the break there were worrying signs of problems in the Macclesfield defence and ball retention was not up to its usual standards.  All this combined with two taken against the head by the West Park pack made uncomfortable viewing for the travelling support – heavily outnumbered by the partisan and vocal home support!!

As the second half began a bright sun shone behind the Macclesfield side as they attacked and a Ross Winney penalty after 3 minutes struck a post and went out and then a poorly enforced line out on the home 5 metre line was run out of defence and kicked into the Macclesfield half.

However a splendid solo effort from Scrum Half Joe Walker raised the spirits of the Blues when he sold a dummy and just made it to the line after a 40 metre individual break and with the Winney conversion striking home Macclesfield led 10-7.

The Blues made a hash of the kick off and Park gained good possession which resulted in an offside decision for Souter to level the scores with a penalty but then Park took the lead again when Scrum Half Philip Webster broke round the blind side to score in the corner.  The conversion failed as did a Winney penalty ten minutes later but Macclesfield were very much in the game and perhaps would have scored but for good – if illegal – defence by the home side.

Winney narrowed the scores with another penalty on the half hour and in the final frantic minutes both sides had opportunity to score but sadly as the game drew to en end frustrations boiled over with a mass brawl certainly not adding to the Christmas spirit and one of the home players seen delivering a flurry of punches was lucky to remain on the park in an unsatisfactory close to the encounter after which Coach – Steve Mannion – was direct in his comments saying, “Frankly it was the worst first 40 I have seen from a Macc side for years. I was bitterly disappointed with the skill levels and defence which were poor”.

Team: Latham, Allen, Robinson, Lear, Bostock, Kerr, Baines, Hewitt. Walker, Winney, Jones, Howcroft, Hughes, Bartle & Macey.

Replacements: Harvey, Davidson, Brian, Fisher.