Tyldesley 5 De La Salle 5 THE two sides challenging for honours in North Lancashire Division One fought out a tight and tense draw at Well Street.

Tyldesley's only league defeat came at the start of the season at De La Salle when the Salford side won by just seven points and from there on they haven't dropped a point.

Tyldesley started the stronger, pinning De La Salle into their '22' and applying constant pressure. However, De La Salle held out with some strong and steadfast tackling which limited Tyldesley to three long range penalty attempts which all failed to find the mark.

The visitors' only first half surge into the Tyldesley half was dealt with strong resistance and the half end level at 0-0.

Early in the second period the visitors kicked well into the corner and worked the ball wide for the full back to provide the extra man and crash over in the right hand corner for an unconverted try.

Tyldesley again began to drive into the De La Salle line but wave after wave of attacks were thwarted. A triple substitution by the home team provide new impetus and Tyldesley again moved into the ascendancy.

Weaker sides would have by now wilted but De La Salle held firm until the last two minutes when Chris Plimley put a fine grubber kick through the defence and full back Mark Swanton was quickest to the ball for a try which was wide on the left touchline. With the strong wind against him Tyldesley goalkicker Eddie Wallbank tried valiantly to kick the winning conversion but the ball fell just wide of the mark.

De La Salle now go into the last four games knowing that four wins will be bring the title, while Tyldesley will chase them all the way hoping they slip up and allow the Well Street side a chance.

The result means that both sides cannot be caught by any other team, so either way Tyldesley can still go up automatically or win the end of season play-off against Cumbrian side St Benedict's.

Tyldesley seconds visited De La Salle and put in a poor performance going down 21-5. The Third team had a excellent 39-0 victory at Aspull with the venerable Peter Mannion scoring one of Tyldesley's seven tries.