Thatto Heath Crusaders 24 Portico Panthers 22

A BIG crowd saw the home side take the derby spoils in this hard-fought and physical battle but they were pushed all the way by a determined Portico side.

Portico started strongly and took an 8-0 lead with uncoverted tries by Giasome DeFarro and Neil Kearns.

Heath hit back with an opportunist try by Mike Woods, converted by Roy Litherland, then took the lead when Barry Ashall darted over.

Portico regained a narrow advantage just before the interval with a try by Lee Cunningham.

The see-saw scoring continued with the strong-running Lloyd going over for Heath and Kearns grabbing his second for Portico to tie the scores at 16-16.

A try by Hill and two goals by Litherland gave the home side breathing space at 24-16.

Portico refused to lie down but a try by Chris Ashurst, goaled by Craig Peel, came just too late as the home side held on to win.

David Lloyd was Heath's man-of-the-match, while best for Portico was Dave Lee closely followed by Keith Tunstall and Neil Kearns.

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