Ellesmere Port 11 Knutsford 7

PORT’S incredible run of form continued on Saturday when they made it 10 league wins on the spin.

While far from at their best, Ian Johnson’s men showed spirit to secure a victory which leaves them five points behind a Crewe & Nantwich team that went top by beating previous pacesetters Prenton.

Third-placed Port would move level on points with Crewe by winning their game in hand.

They would not, however, take over pole position because of their inferior amount of bonus points.

Head coach Johnson said: “We will need to work hard on the training ground this week to get the under-par performance out of the system and get back to the standard of rugby we are capable of.

“Several players have under-performed today but we will fix that at training.”

In Port’s defence, Knutsford have improved greatly since they crashed to a 44-12 defeat when the teams met in East Cheshire in October.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring with a converted try that followed a uncharacteristic error from centre Peter Doyle and fullback Ant Jones.

Although they were not helped by the conditions, Port struggled to establish a strong foothold in the contest until No 8 James Callaghan crossed the whitewash.

Suffering from illness, fly-half Chris Carbutt missed the resulting conversion and he was replaced at the break by Paul Millington.

And it was veteran Millington who kicked the hosts to victory with two penalties.

Port, for whom back-row Steve Jefferies was man of the match, head to fourth-placed Parkonians on Saturday.