Cleck foiled by Rasch of penalties

6:18pm Sunday 16th November 2008

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Cleckheaton 14, Westoe 16

Cleck brought Westoe back down to earth after last week’s 80-0 win over Darlington but the boot of Sam Rasch and some robust tackling kept the visitors on a winning run.

After both sides had missed a penalty, the away side took the lead in the tenth minute when John Fitzpatrick went in for a try off some poor tackling and Rasch converted.

Westoe’s John Okwe-Pearson was sin-binned for a professional foul within five metres of his own line in the 29th minute but Cleck’s poor tactics let them down.

However, they levelled when forward Edu Hanekom peeled off the scrum during a drive for a try in the 33rd minute and Ross Hayden converted.

Two minutes later, the ball was collected by Matt Piper who found his way through the pack to cross over and Hayden again converted.

A late injury-time penalty for Westoe from Rasch made it 14-10 to Cleck at half-time.

A further penalty from Rasch put them within one point after the break before Cleck’s Doug Trivella was sinbinned for an infringement.

Westoe went ahead after 62 minutes with yet another penalty from Rasch.

In the last 20 minutes, the hosts looked to win the game but were denied by a disputed decision from the referee who said a pass had gone forward to Hayden when he looked in the clear.