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Broughton Park 19 Sandbach 15

17/ 4/2008

BROUGHTON Park missed out on a promotion play-off place for the second consecutive year despite winning their final home game of the season.

Having finished joint-second in the table, an inferior points difference means they will not feature in the end-of-season shake-up.

They started brightly against Sandbach, dominating possession through many phases, one of which culminated with a try near the posts from Jon Knight, converted by Ronan O’Brien.

John Clifford then crossed for a second try on the quarter-hour as Park ran Sandbach ragged, dragging their defence from one side to the other.

O’Brien and Tom Mapp then combined to send Pat Hurley over for one of the best tries of the year, O’Brien converting.

With the game looking to be won, Park took their foot off the gas and let in Sandbach for a scrambled try to make it 19-5.

The second half saw a revitalised Sandbach playing a Park team that seemed to have gone off the boil, the former cutting the gap to nine points by scoring a try after an overlap on the left.

Although the play switched from end to end, Sandbach secured an increasing amount of good turnover ball from which they scored a third try to set up a nervy final 15 minutes.

Both teams had players sinbinned, Mark Poole’s departure in the final five minutes looking to put the writing on the wall for Park with Sandbach’s forwards pressing the line, but they managed to hold on for victory.