Skipton 14 Roundhegians 14

Lowly Skipton ended their run of Yorkshire Two defeats with a draw against their fellow strugglers.

Their performance may have lacked sparkle, but there certainly was no shortage of determination.

Perhaps with a little more luck they may have snatched the game late on, but the referee ruled that skipper Darren Howson was held up over the line after a powerful drive by the pack.

Most Skipton supporters thought it was a try, but crucially the match official didn’t.

A draw was a fair outcome as the two sides were evenly matched throughout the contest.

Skipton's start was not the best with the kick-off not even reaching the 10-metre line and gifting Roundhegians the first scrum of the game which they duly won. Thankfully for the home side the attack petered out.

After a scrappy first seven minutes Skipton won a kickable penalty which sailed wide. Play continued to go back and forth but finally the Reds went ahead.

The backs cut open the Roundhegians defence. Full back Andy McLean collected the ball inside the Roundhegians half and took it to the 22 where he passed to Dave Wilkinson.

A nice piece of handling by the winger gave Howson the chance to touch down under the posts for a try which he also converted.

Skipton were unable to build on their lead. Indiscipline saw them concede three penalties. Two were successfully converted by Roundhegians as they closed the first half just 7-6 down.

Skipton started the second half on the attack and were rewarded with a fine try from prop Chris Lambert after probing breaks by the pack. Howson’s conversion made it 14-6..

Injuries to Lee Shaw and Tom Keady saw them having to be replaced by Miff Smith,and young Jordan Wilson.

Roundhegians were applying their own pressure and scored a try out wide, to close to 14-11.

With 25 minutes to go Skipton conceded another penalty which was converted to make the score 14-14.

After Howson had been denied a late try Roundhegians gave Skipton a scare. They won the ball from the resulting scrum and immediately broke down field only to be stopped on the Skipton five-metre line .

A knock-on gave the referee the opportunity to call time on the game and blow the final whistle.

Skipton face their toughest test of the season on Saturday when they visit league leaders Selby.