This Saturday the first team travelled away to Marple. The lads were still haunted by their previous encounter back in September, when a dominant Congleton scuppered chance after chance and to lose 12-19.

Congleton struck early on 3 minutes, with winger Giulio Domino following up his first club try last week with another this week, after pouncing on grubber kicks through from Joe Kanauros and Ed Williams.

Centres Ed Williams and Mark Beresford were making yards for fun, but Congleton couldn’t seem to find the accuracy to finish off the breaks. Momentum swung to Marple who then managed to score two of their own.

Ross Somers went over for his first of the season shorty before the break, Congleton moving the ball nicely into the wide channels and the prop finding space and powering through from the 22 meter line. 12-12 at half time.

Marple capitalised from Congleton’s high penalty count, working down the pitch and slotting a penalty to lead 15-12, and it was looking as though Congleton would suffer the same fate again.

But the fightback was on and the Bears left it late, but in the 70th minute after some solid pressure with a Marple yellow card to help, Ross Somers went over for his second of the match with a pick and go close to the line. 15-19.

The big Marple forwards had tired and gaps were opening all over in the final 5 minutes, which gave Greg Wood the opportunity to blast through to give Congleton a final 15-26 bonus point win.

Man of the match for his superb defensive efforts went to Alex Fray, who said ‘we made hard work of it today, but there is no better feeling than coming from behind and taking victory.’

Next Saturday, Congleton play their final game of the season at home to Orrel.