Vale 27-12 Altrincham Kersal

Like the previous meeting there were winners and losers in each half, the Vale ‘won’ the first, 24-5 but ‘lost’ the second 7-3, all purely academic of course because what mattered was that maximum points had been squirreled away from the eighth victory of the campaign.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring after three minutes when a kick out of defence was charged down and before the Vale could react or bring down the shutters Rob Heseltine was skimming over for an unconverted try.

In the seventh minute the Vale drew level with a combination of good fortune and intuition from Fergus Owens.

Ben Dorrington slammed a penalty kick against an upright, the ball ricocheted to the left where Owens was lurking.

In a flash the left winger shot over the line for an unconverted try, the first of his hat-trick.

The threequarter’s qualities were highlighted in the build up to the next try.

A well disguised switch move in the centre had Altrincham at sixes and sevens the attack ended with Owens crossing for a try converted by Dorrington as the first quarter drew to a close.

Dorrington’s quick reactions were rewarded with a try when he stealthily grabbed a loose ball for a solo try between the posts which he converted in the 24th minute.

Five minutes later Owens collected his hat-trick when the ball was accurately flipped along the line for an unconverted try in the corner to give the Vale a 19 point lead at half time .

Andy Powers was sent to the sin-bin in the 58th minute after period of pressure from Altrincham and while the hard working flanker was off the field Altrincham took full advantage to score a well worked try from centre J P Singleton converted by scrum half Callum Yates in the 61st minute.

In the 74th minute the Vale were awarded a penalty on Altrincham’s 22 and in front of the posts.

With Dorrington off the field injured, Charlie Lomas took over the kicking duties and he duly obliged with a coolly converted penalty.

The three pointer helped Vale to batten down the hatches and breathe a little easier.

They might have added to their lead with a number of promising attacks.

Al Crookall went careering down the middle, a quickly taken, intricate line out almost produced a score and Turton fired an ambitious drop goal at the conclusion of an entertaining game.