Aspatria’s battle with visiting Sunderland ended with a narrow, vital 12:11 win for the home side. From a quality perspective, the game was a drab affair, the incessant rain doing little to encourage fluency in a contest littered with handling errors and penalties.

None of the above detracted from enjoying a game where the result was on a knife-edge for the full 80 minutes and, in the process, delivered tension by the bucketload. This owed much to the prize at stake; Aspatria badly needed a win to ease the looming prospect of a relegation battle, and a positive result would have kept Sunderland hard on the heels of league leaders Northern.

Sunderland arrived at Bower Park as the league’s second-placed side, and the early play proved sufficient to demonstrate why they were in such a strong position, pinning Aspatria in the home 22. This established a pattern that lasted throughout the game. Whilst set-piece play at the scrum and lineout were relatively even contests, it was Sunderland who had the main share of possession, usually deep in Aspatria territory.

Territorial advantage earned by an impressive Sunderland work rate forced Aspatria into defensive mode for much of the game. The overall verdict is that the home side performed this task extremely well.

After 10 minutes of absorbing Sunderland pressure, the first crack appeared in the home defence, Jack Clegg receiving a yellow card for illegally disrupting a passing move that might well have ended in the first score. The resulting penalty was very kickable, but Sunderland opted for the scrum, and from this a forward walk-in score resulted, providing a 0:5 advantage.

As time marched on, Aspatria began to achieve a reasonable share of the ball but failed to generate any real threat. In contrast, when Sunderland took over possession, this invariably resulted in pressure on the Aspatria try line. The game proceeded in this fashion until around the 30 minute mark when Aspatria’s right winger, Shane Cusack, engineered a solo effort. Cusack intercepted a Sunderland attack to take over possession and had no difficulty in striding a full 60 meters to the try line.

Clegg converted the Cusack score for a 7:5 lead, and with the last play of the half, it got worse for Sunderland. Again, it was a blistering run down the right by Cusack that achieved a strong attacking position in the Sunderland 22. Aspatria won the lineout, and the home back division was able to mount a rare attack. The ball was moved quickly right to left, where winger Dan Weir squeezed in at the corner with inches to spare.

So, two Aspatria attacks in the first half, both resulting in tries, put Aspatria on top at 12:5, a score line that admittedly was against the run of play.

Sunderland started the second period with an immediate penalty as Aspatria were caught offside. The kick was successful, and the gap narrowed to 12:8. The next phase of play was more even, and Aspatria were able to defend all the attacking intent Sunderland could muster going into the final quarter. At this point, play once more swung in Sunderland’s favour when another penalty sliced Aspatria’s lead to a single point.

In the final 20 minutes, Aspatria were not exactly hanging on; they were better than that, but there was a definite feeling that if another try was scored, then it would probably be the visitors who were celebrating.

As the clock ticked down, Sunderland’s effort became more erratic and their error rate crept up. Aspatria’s discipline had improved, even so they lost Cusack to a yellow card. Sunderland mounted a series of late attacks searching for a match-winning penalty attempt or better, but nothing worked.

In the final moments, defending on the try line, Aspatria wrested possession back, and for the final few phases, a series of pick and go moves crawled up the left touchline to use the final minute until the whistle came to end the contest.