The stocky fly-half come centre held his nerve to land a 38 metre penalty with the last kick of the game to give West victory at Hollow Drift and keep them in the hunt for a play-off place. In truth it was a game that should never have come down to such a tight finish with City taking the lead with 5 minutes to play only to have the victory snatched away.

In a way it was a cruel blow, especially given the fact that the loss sends them deeper into relegation trouble now seemingly fighting it out with Horden for the last relegation spot. But, as some of the City faithful acknowledged after the game, they hadn't deserved the win on the balance of the eighty minutes play as West had failed to turn pressure into points when dominating the majority of the game.

The game was riddled with handling errors on both sides and wasn't the greatest spectacle for the onlooking supporter. When passes were strung together both sides showed they can be a force in attack but these flashes were, unfortunately, few and far between.

West dominated the opening quarter but it was City who had the first real scoring opportunity early on when second row Showler dropped the ball attempting to touch down. That foray into the 22 would be the last for quite a while as West controlled things and ran in two tries both involving England scrum-half Michael Young.
First it was his pass after breaking from the base of a scrum that put Andrew Hare in for the opening try on 13 minutes before scoring the second on his own, skipping away from his opposite number after again breaking from the base. Moss hit the bar with the conversion to leave it 10-0 with 25 minutes played and West starting to look like they might run riot.

City battled back though and scored a good try of their own through flanker Thompson created by some good strong running by the backs and finished off with some power from the forwards. It was against the run of play on the half hour and a reminder to West that they weren't going to have it all their own way. The usually reliable James Walker somehow skewed the simple conversion wide.

The score remained 10-5 until half-time with West growing increasingly frustrated at their lack of points and clear scoring opportunities. They started the second half by giving away a silly penalty which Walker made no mistake with to close the gap to just two points and further frustrate the visitors.

City continued to fight valiantly in defence, forcing errors and despite West's continuing territorial advantage, try as they might there was no breaking down the blue and gold wall. Even when Knowles was despatched to the sin-bin after 3 penalties committed inside the 22 the defence refused to yield and all West had to show for the best part of half an hours attacking was a Moss shot at goal on 63 minutes which came back off the post.

Still only leading by two West conceded a couple of penalties which allowed City to gain some territory and a further indescretion gave Walker a shot at goal from around 30 metres out. He had no problems stroking it through the posts to send the home fans and players wild as they sniffed a crucial victory, now 11-10 up with 5 minutes to play.

However it was not to be. A needless, but obvious, penalty for hands in the ruck, right in-front of the official gave Moss his chance, and as the touch judges flags were raised the full-time whistle was blown. City might have felt a bit aggrieved at the lack of injury time but for West it had been a real get-out-of-jail card and, thanks to Rovers victory over Driffield, one which firmly establishes them in third place and still within touching distance, just, of second spot.

It will hopefully be a exciting climax to the season and town rivals Rovers can do West another big favour next week when they visit second place Sheffield Tigers while West entertain Old Crossleyans.

After that the run in is as follows:
West: Driffield (a), Morpeth (a), Sheffield Tigers (h)
Tigers: Durham City (a), Driffield (h), West (a)

With Driffield still hovering it's still all to play for and lets hope it comes down to that last game to really finish the season off with a big game!



West: Hare, Painter, Edwards, Moss, Todd, Tighe, Young, Carr, A Dixon, Robinson, Rudd, Miller, D Boatman (Tones), Myers, J Boatman
Reps: Cheslin, Norris

Tries: Hare, Young
Pen: Moss

Durham City: Walker, Howe, Atkinson, Knowles, Mattison, Stevenson, Roberts, Davison, Nichols, Cammiss, Martin, Showler, Thompson, McKinnon, Johnson
Reps: Archibald, Smithson, Rubie

Try: Thompson
Pens: Walker 2

Referee: Ray Sutherland [Durham Society]