Crewe & Nantwich 1sts had a welcome return to winning ways with a 14-23 victory away at Eccles.
The hosts sat one place above Crewe in the table before kick off and a win would leapfrog Crewe above them.
And Crewe started the stronger using the wind to their advantage and putting Eccles under pressure with some well placed kicks.
An overlap out wide which gave Charlie space to show a dummy and draw in the full back to give Nathan a walk in for the first try of the day.
Following the kick off Josh made a nice break down the edge and put a nicely weighted kick over the top of the fullback to force Eccles under more pressure inside the 22.
Jacob and Josh forced a turnover and the retreating Eccles players were never back onside which gave Crewe a kickable penalty which made it 0-8.
Crewe attacked wide again and a miss pass from Jacob gave Josh room against his winger.
He offloaded inside to Logan who swapped passes with Jacob before finishing a well worked try in the corner. A missed conversion left it 0-13.
Crewe went 20-0 ahead when they stripped the ball and a kick in behind was chased which the Eccles fullback should have gathered.
But the bounce favoured Jacob who dotted over the line, which was converted.
Eccles hit back with a well worked line out move giving a huge gap for their number 6 to run through to make it 7-20.
The hosts gave away a penalty before the break so Crewe extended the lead to 7-23.
After the break, both sides made lots of handling errors as Eccles controlled the possession.
It took about 20 minutes before Eccles got over the line for a second try after a few missed tackles to make it 14-23.
Both teams made key handling errors at key points, Eccles failing with some two on ones, and Crewe missing simple passes or lineouts.
A yellow card saw Crewe down to 14 and were put under pressure.
Both teams then received a yellow for some scrapping on the floor, putting Crewe down to 13 and Eccles down to 14 for the rest of the game.
Crewe could not convert some penalties to get the bonus point and Eccles, chasing a losing bonus point, played fast and wide and made some ground.
But with no time on the clock a fight started with the Eccles number 6 being sent off and a penalty to Crewe who tapped and kicked the ball out to finish a hard fought match.
This Sunday, Crewe welcome Vale of Lune to the Vagrants.
All supporters are welcome. The game will be followed by a fundraising challenge as 42 members of the club will be cycling throughout the night to complete a combined distance of over 2,500 miles to reach the “North Pole.”
The 2nds lost 33-0 against Congleton, and the Women put in their best performance of the season before being narrowly defeated 22-20 by Hucclecote.
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