Macclesfield 7, Blaydon 15

If ever there was a must win game it was this clash between the two sides at the bottom of National League One and when push came to shove it was Blaydon that defended the better, used their possession the better, and in the second period crossed for a couple of well earned tries.

Macclesfield however had all the early pressure, much of it gifted by poor kicking by the visitors, and on the half-hour were rewarded with a try from a line-out drive by lock forward Ryan Parkinson to which full-back Alan Morton added the conversion points.
Having absorbed the pressure and easily contained the Macclesfield attacks Blaydon gradually came more into it and with the interval approaching Brett Connon put over a penalty to make it a 7-3 score-line at the break.
The improvement continued in the second period and from a series of pick and drives Blaydon took the lead through prop-forward Andrew Foster who was driven over, but disappointingly the conversion kick went astray. Now playing a more open game the visitors backs became a regular threat with excellent breaks from Frazer Wilson and Tom Small and in particular full-back James Cooney who was voted man of the match by the opposition.
lt took until the 74th minute however to settle the issue and deny Macclesfield a losing bonus point, the Blaydon forwards leading the way for skipper Keith Laughlin to crash over from more good re-cycling work.
This time Connon was spot on with the conversion kick from wide out to bring Blaydon’s 6 match losing run to an end and gain valuable points in the battle to avoid relegation.

John Brennan