Knutsford made heavy work of their victory at Egerton on Saturday.
This was a wake up call for Knutsford, and coupled with the appearance off the bench from Robertson, they quickly responded with a double from centre Crawford. The first coming off a terrific jinking run from James, with the fly half eventually off loading to Crawford and the 13 finished it off. The second was actually from a Port set piece. The Knutsford back line rushed their defence, which lead to a forced pass which just wasn’t on, and Crawford read it well, intercepted and ran half the pitch to score under the posts. Mooney converted what would be his only points of the day with the boot.
Half Time Knutsford 12 Ellesmere Port 5
Knutsford started the second half in a dominant mood, and quickly racked some points onto the board. After some strong running from Knutsford’s back line, the move was halted just short of the line. Mooney collected from the resulting ruck and bundled over the line to score.
Knutsford made a change, with the veteran Owen coming on, and the big prop made an impact on the game in many ways, both positive and negative. After another charge up the field, Owen collected the ball just short of the line, and unusually passed out to Perry who finished the move off in the corner.
Owen was rewarded shortly after with his own try, again finding himself hanging at the back of a ruck 3 metres out and he tumbled over for the try.
A couple of penalty opportunities went a begging from Knutsford, with Mooney just not finding his kicking range on the day.
Port then made a change themselves, and this almost tipped the game in their favour after a fantastic comeback by the visitors, and a hat trick from their no 8 sub. All 3 came from up front, and despite some great defending from Knutsford, they just couldn’t stop the barrage coming from Port. Their cause was not helped when Owen got himself binned for persistent fouling with nine to go.
In the end, Knutsford held out to take maximum points and keep them towards the top of what is looking like a very competitive league. Next week they travel to Helsby in the Cheshire plate, kick off 3pm.
Full Time Knutsford 27 Ellesmere Port 24
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