Thatto Heath Crusaders 36

Normanton Knights 29 HEATH made it two out of two in the National Conference League with this thrilling victory.

They opened the scoring within the first five minutes when winger Phil Glover crossed out wide after quick hands from Mitchell and Coope had put him through.

Knight's centre Ian Morse narrowed the gap with a penalty goal after a play the ball infringement but Barry Ford returned the compliment on 20 minutes after Normanton had strayed offside.

Heath looked set to go into the break with a narrow lead until the Yorkshire men crossed for a well worked try through centre Craig Mould. Morse tagged on the conversion.

Knights' prop Kevin Martin increased their lead with a drop goal after only two minutes of the second half but two tries in two minutes for Heath, one from centre Paul Coope and the first of a hat-trick from winger Mike Woods both provided by replacement stand-off Barry Ashall, gave the lead back to the visitors. Ashall added a conversion and Crusaders looked to have broken the Normanton resistance.

But the Knights were far from out of the game and got back to within a point when a slip in defence allowed an easy touch down for loose forward Paul Seal that Morse again converted.

In the 20th and 22nd minutes, tries were exchanged, firstly a fine individual try from scrum-half Darren Mitchell converted by Ashall saw Heath increase their lead only to be pegged back by Normanton when second rower Gavin Barrett crossed un-opposed after appearing to steal the ball in a two man tackle. Morse added the two and the gap returned to a point. For a brief moment the Knights held the lead as we entered the final quarter when Morse grabbed his fifth goal from a penalty.

But then with less than 15 minutes to go Woods took the game by the scruff of the neck scoring twice in as many minutes, both tries coming through a combination of intelligent passing and Woods' superb angled runs.

Centre Anthony Marsh put the game beyond doubt in the 25th minute with a fine try after stepping inside to wrong foot the Knights defence and added the conversion himself.

Normanton scored a consolation try in the last minute through their man of the match Ian Booth and Morse added his sixth goal to cap a fine individual display.

Thatto Heath A 22

Woolston A 28

The much larger Warrington outfit took the points from this North West Counties League Division Four game but in the end were made to work hard for them.

Heath's tries came from Jason Gavin, Mark Hayton (2), Dave Mitchell with Ian Chisnall adding conversions

Crusaders were best served by Chisnall, Millet and Hayton.