MALTON & Norton RUFC are looking over their shoulders again in North One East after a 39-17 defeat at Percy Park.

The Ryedale side, showing six changes to the squad of 18 that won at Consett seven days earlier, were unable to make the most of the few opportunities Park offered them, with the heavyweight home forwards going on to dominate set-pieces and build a possession and territorial advantage.

M&N's woes were compounded with a neck injury for Jamie Rounthwaite, which was to be assessed this week, and a concussion issue for Tom Foan, who is now likely to sit out the next three weeks as a result, starting with Saturday's home match against sixth-placed Bridlington.

Club spokesman James Knock said: "This result leaves Malton in 10th place, 23 points short of the expected safety mark of 50, in an intriguing league where early leaders have slipped in recent games and dark horses have come up on the rails to top the table."

Percy Park kicked off straight into touch - one of the few mistakes they made in the 80 minutes - and, after being held up over the whitewash following a break from another home error, Malton opened the scoring with a penalty by Paul Angus.

From then on the Park pack dominated, Malton's scraps of possession and territory being limited to hard-fought battles at the breakdown.

On 15 minutes, Park's lively Aussie scrum-half, Will Haskins, opened his team's account with a fine try. Five minutes later, the hosts crashed over for five more points.

Malton then lost second-rower and key lineout operator Rounthwaite and, with half-time beckoning, Park showed how dangerous they were when the guns in the backs opened fire and the resultant try gave them a 15-3 interval lead.

The consensus among the travelling support was for that a long second half was afoot, and so it proved.

On resumption of play, Park crashed upfield and recycled ball brought the hosts a bonus-point try via the wide men.

Malton did hit back though as their forwards, undeterred, drove down to the Park line.

In the ensuing pick-up and drives, Nick Daley, on his back, stretched out above his head to ground the ball for a 53rd-minute touchdown. Angus added the extras.

A swift reply followed from Park as their backed notched a converted try just 100 seconds later.

Foan departed around this time and, 10 minutes later, Park scored again, the conversion making it 34-10.

Their final try came two minutes later, the backs again showing their paces.

To Malton's credit they kept their heads up and, with time running out, a visit to the opponents' line saw Ben Tenge twist and turn and drive for the whitewash, the try being smartly converted with a drop-kick by Angus, salvaging some pride for the visitors.