Horden showed up well in the initial stages, but it was the home side who took the lead on 14 minutes with a penalty from Dan Phin. Three minutes later Horden were level and the only other scoring activity of the half was another well struck penalty from Phin, which took Stockton into the break with a 6-3 lead.

Horden made the score 6-6 in the first minute of the second half and then turned the game on its head on 44 minutes when Stockton were pressing hard in the visitors 22. An errant long pass was intercepted by a Horden centre who then ran 80 metres unopposed to score under the posts. The try was converted and Horden were leading 13-6 when Stockton had been expected to take the lead.

Stockton now realised that defeat was staring them in the face and reacted almost immediately, with flanker Liam Healey crashing over wide out on the right to cut the gap to two points.

On 60 minutes, Phin kicked another penalty to give Stockton a narrow 1 point lead and the gap was extended to 6 points after 68 minutes when back row Martin Dixon claimed the touchdown for a pushover try to make the score 19-13 to Stockton.

The game still wasn't over and Horden put on late pressure with their big pack pressing the Stockton line.

With only 2 minutes left and Stockton facing a scrum 10 metres from their own try line, joint coach Martin Howe pulled a master stroke by bringing on master scrummaging veteran prop Maurice Douthwaite for what proved to be the last scrum of the game. Maurice won a penalty at the scrum, the line was cleared, and Stockton had won a tight game.