The relegation-influencing aura may have been removed from this match courtesy of results preceding the fixture but huge sighs of relief could still be heard at full time on Saturday. The sighs not associated with escaping demotion, but at the fact that referee Oliver Dixon had brought an end to what was a match of staggeringly low quality!

With both teams having done enough to ensure that they will ply their trade in Durham & Northumberland 1 next season and the game all but reduced to a friendly match, a fully committed and passionate encounter was never really expected but even if both teams should meet again in a non-competitive capacity, they will struggle to put in performances as poor as this.

But despite the torture that was served up on the field, Acklam’s supporters and indeed players could still feel happy that they had finished the season on a winning note and at the same time continued their dominance over the Hartlepool club on their home ground.

The early exchanges of the match suggested that Tech’s 7 year wait for another win at Talbot Park might come to an end with both forwards and backs running smoothly, number 8 Stephen Stockdale in particular causing problems for the home defence. Stockdale himself came close to scoring as early as the third minute and although this move did peter out due to Tech being penalised at the subsequent ruck, the men in blue continued to maintain pressure and after 9 minutes Ashley Parker slotted a penalty to put his team 3 nil up. Perhaps this would be Tech’s afternoon?

Perhaps not. For the next 70 minutes Tech looked incapable of troubling the home team. Crossing the gain line let alone the opponents goal line seemed beyond them, something coach Peter Robinson lamented after the game, “had we played till Christmas day we still wouldn’t have scored a try”!

With Acklam beginning to take control of the match and Tech hanging on, it seemed only a matter of time before the home team grabbed their first points of the afternoon. Some stubborn Tech defence prolonged this till the 18^th minute but when flanker Stephen Smart was sent to the sin bin, Acklam made Tech pay with a penalty of their own from full back Ashton.

This was the only scoring act to be produced whilst Smart was in the bin however, but if Tech felt smug that Acklam had failed to capitalise they soon had this feeling removed when on 33 minutes Paul Williamson found another of his kicks from the base of the ruck charged down by the advancing defence. With Tech now hopelessly outnumbered Acklam kept the ball alive well and number 8 Steve Taylor crossed for the try. Ashton failed to convert and no further scoring was to take place in the first half although Tech did manage to reduce themselves to 14 players for the second time of the game when Ashley Parker was sin binned for dissent.

It seemed unlikely that things would improve after the break and so it proved with the 40 minutes of action merely a catalogue of errors punctuated by the occasional scoring act from the home team. Ashton was first to strike when he added his second penalty of the afternoon on 52 minutes, this being followed by tries for Dunne and Ashton himself, both coming in farcical circumstances.

A ruck was set up just outside the Tech 22. The ball was then presented at the back and no Tech player stepped forward to play it. With the ball being out, Acklam had the simple task of turning over possession and passing along the wing to Dunne who sprinted home. Ashton grabbed his try with an interception in injury time, a fitting end to a poor match.

And so what of Tech? Having finished 5^th last season, the finishing position of 9^th this time round and only 14 points can be viewed as a disappointment. The Grayfields outfit had to contend with some seriously bad luck on the injury front but even so, there were numerous occasions in the season when games should have been won irrespective of this and the lack of killer instinct was a concern for much of the campaign.

With the potentially strong Gateshead and North Shields winning promotion to Durham & Northumberland 1 and logic suggesting that the RFU will allocate Horden and Redcar to the same league following relegation, next season’s league could be just as strong as this one and improvements must be made at Wiltshire Way. A major plus has already been achieved in the form of permission to have their pitch fenced off over the summer. Some new signings would complement this good news very well indeed and give Tech reason to feel confident that things can improve next time round.

Acklam 25

Tries: Taylor (33), Dunne (64), Ashton (80)

Cons: Ashton (64, 80)

Pens: Ashton (18, 52)

Tech 3

Pen: A Parker (9)

Acklam

Ashton, Dunne, Davidson, Kami, Hames, Graham, Coxon, Grey, Ward, Donnegan, Turner, Cruikshank, Collins (Fairburn), I Dixon, Taylor, Subs not used: Paine

Scrums 10, Scrums won on own put in 8, Scrums lost on own put in 2 (0 against head), Pens awarded 11, Kicked at goal 2, Kicked for touch 7, Ran 2, Lineouts won on own throw 6, Lineouts lost on own throw 6

Tech

Cole, Cheshire, Siddle, M Parker, Cook, A Parker, P Williamson, Mason (Palmer), Dixon, Thompson, Jukes, Howard, Smart, Campbell, Stockdale

Scrums 13, Scrums won on own put in 9, Scrums lost on own put in 4 (1 against head), Pens awarded 13, Kicked at goal 2 (1 miss), Kicked for touch 6, Ran 5, Lineouts won on own throw 6, Lineouts lost on own throw 3

Sin bin: Smart (18), A Parker (40)

Referee: Oliver Dixon (Yorkshire)