Last-gasp agony as Malton's Twickenham dreams end (From Gazette & Herald)

Last-gasp agony as Malton's Twickenham dreams end

Powergen Junior Vase

Sixth Round

Bradford Salem 22pts

Malton and Norton 20pts

Malton and Norton's dreams of a return to Twickenham were ended in a ding-dong battle at Bradford, with a last-minute penalty try seeing Salem through to the quarter-finals.

Bradford's tactics were to stifle Malton's running game and exert pressure through their more powerful pack. With Malton struggling to come to terms with the home scrummaging, good ball was in short supply and Malton's backs were largely unable to break free from the shackles of a good Salem defence.

The first score went to Salem after 20 minutes when Malt were penalised at a maul. Worse was to come when Salem went for a pushover try. In trying to prevent the score, a Malton player got himself into an offside position and a penalty try was conceded.

With their large band of supporters urging them on, the visitors hit a purple patch and reduced the arrears through two Ian Cooke penalties when Salem were penalised for killing the ball. On the second occasion, a prop forward was shown a yellow card for persistent offending.

With numerical advantage, Malton produced the move of the game to take the lead. From a mid-field ruck the ball was quickly transferred across the backs to the right wing where hooker Steve Piercy crossed over to give his side an interval lead.

Salem started the second period the stronger and kept up the pressure on the Malton defence with some good line kicking and superior rucking and mauling techniques.

The gap was soon closed with an excellent drop goal from a ruck 20 metres out. Malton struck back to restore the margin of their lead with another Cooke penalty before pressing the self-destruct button.

From a long kick into the Malton 22 area, and without any serious pressure, the ball should have been sent back upfield. Instead, Malton decided to run the ball out of defence and paid the price when possession was lost and Salem scored a simple try to take a one-point lead.

Again, Salem's numbers were reduced when a second player was shown a yellow card for killing the ball and again Malton took advantage through the trusty boot of Ian Cooke with two further penalties.

Salem refused to give up and forced a series of scrums on the Malton line during the dying seconds. At the last of these, and with a pushover try looking a certainty, a Malton flanker was adjudged to have prevented the score by taking out a Salem prop. The referee awarded a second penalty try to level the scores and, with the conversion in front of the posts, the tie was settled with the last kick of the game.

Gutted coach Pat Stephenson said: "All credit to Salem. They played well enough to win and probably deserved it. The lads were exceedingly down and it will take them a bit to get over it. We were victims of our own self-destruction really. We couldn't get hold of the ball and our style of play is such that if we don't have the ball, we struggle. Bradford were really up for it but that is not to say I would criticise our level of effort."

Malton battled well but on the day met a side who, although skilfully inferior, disrupted Malt's normal pattern of play so that scoring opportunities were few. The disappointment was plain to see but at least Malton can now concentrate fully on their promotion bid, starting with Saturday's trip to Ilkley.

Updated: 10:45 Wednesday, January 22, 2003