Wirral 17, Macclesfield 19 

WIRRAL lose the game by a small margin, this time by two points having had the lead until the 78th minute.

The match started with play being restricted to the mid field area but after 10 minutes during a Macclesfield (Macc) attack the match was immediately halted as Chris Speed the Wirral centre suffered an injury - a dislocated elbow.

Play was held up for several minutes whilst he was attended to.

On Wirral’s first attack the ball was spun left with the final scoring pass being deliberately knocked on resulting in a yellow card to the Macc scrum half and the awarding of a penalty try to the home side.

On 25 minutes Wirral increased the lead to 10-0 with a penalty by James Annetts from 35m.

For their part Macc had opportunities in the Wirral 20m but strong defence kept them at bay to leave the home side in the lead at half time.

In the second half the first 10 minutes which was played deep in the Macc half with Wirral being unlucky to have a try disallowed after a break by James Annetts and his pass after being tackled was deemed to be forward.

Gradually, the away side came into the game and had more possession in this half but having missed a penalty opportunity decided to concentrate on using their forwards to score and therefore went for scrum or line out options.

The Wirral defence continued to hold out even when down to 14 men when flanker, Tom Parry was sin-binned.

On such a Macc attack they dropped the ball on the Wirral 20m line, Ben Brooks seized the chance to kick ahead and another kick forward saw him win a tight race to touch down close to the posts with James Annetts converting; 17-0.

Two minutes later, Wirral were reduced to 13 men when Hayden Long was also sin binned.

In the 67th minute whilst down to 13 men, the Wirral defence was stretched and prop, Dan Percival scored with Will Davis converting from the touchline. 17-7.

Macc now played with more intensity and in the next eight minutes scored two more tries (one converted) through Will Davis and James Oliver to give the away side a 17-19 lead.

In the final 90 seconds of play Wirral were awarded two penalties both on the half way line and unfortunately for the home supporters these fell just short of the target.

The points went to Macc and Wirral picked up a losing bonus points for being within seven points of the winning side for the fifth time this season.