CARNFORTH'S last 80 minutes of the 96/97 season saw them again fail to capitalise on the healthy amount of possession they received. A pulsating first half saw the ball move from end to end, Cummings and Etherington in particular putting in some crunching tackles.

Millom opened the scoring with a well struck penalty from wide out. The resulting restart saw the athletic Baines take a well struck kick to drive into the heart of the Millom defence.

With good interplay between new 2nd row Hansson and the resilient Walling who, along with Rich, completed a full quota of 1st XV appearances, eat up the maul which released the ball to the quick thinking Holden to slot over a Rob Andrew style drop goal.

The game continued in this fashion for the reminder of the half with both sides exchanging positional advantage frequently. It was Millom who ended the half 3 points up after a Carnforth misdemeanour.

The second half started in a similar pattern but the cracks were starting to show. Missing the venerable Coulton, no longer could Carnforth rely on quality possession in the line outs and Millom disrupted at every occasion.

With the defence holding firm for 70 minutes, they were finally pierced for Millom to widen their lead to 10 points.

To Carnforth's credit and a certain amount of vocal support from the large contingent of Carnforth supporters, the visitors again applied pressure to the Millom line throwing caution to the wind.

Inevitably, the final score came with Millom intercepting a deep pass in their own 22 for a runaway try in the dying minutes.

Carnforth will now take a deserved month off before pre-season training commences.

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