Stockton 47 Acklam 10

Acklam were well beaten by a strong Stockton side who took control of the derby clash from the start.
Acklam received the kick off but lost the ball in contact. From the scrum Stockton crashed the ball up in midfield, then moved it right with a clear overlap giving winger Simon Crozier an easy run in to score. Stockton took the restart, kicked downfield and a poor attempted return kick gave Stockton's full back Horner the opportunity to run through and score under the posts, converted by stand off Steve Jones to make it 12 nil.
Things got worse for Acklam when a Stockton kick through was touched down by Horner with no defenders in sight, putting Stockton 19 nil up within the first 15 minutes. The visitors eventually got on the scoreboard when Acklam stand off Marcus Sudron kicked a penalty. In recent games Acklam had been able to gain ascendancy in the scrums but they were put under pressure all afternoon by the strong Stockton pack. This was illustrated by a good drive from the home forwards before releasing the ball out wide for another score.
Acklam scored their only try when Sudron did well to jink past several defenders to get over the line. Half time came with Stockton holding a very comfortable 26-10 lead.
Acklam's hopes of a better start to the second half were hit when prop Jordan Rae was penalised and sinbinned for a dangerous tackle. Stockton soon took advantage, scoring two more quickfire tries against the 14 men.
Acklam did make attempts to attack themselves by running a number of penalties but were met by good Stockton defence. Late on a good Acklam move put winger Chris Mallam away only for him to be caught by the last defender. That was Acklam's last chance and Stockton put the seal on a resounding victory with a final try and conversion to make the final score 47 -10.
Acklam have now fallen to 3rd from bottom of the league and have a must win game on Saturday against Ponteland who are one place below them.

Updated 08:25 - 30 Aug 2019 by Mark Collins