Ellesmere Port 18Prenton 38
PRENTON lie second in the South Lancs/Cheshire Three but despite the big margin they didn’t outclass hosts Ellesmere Port on Saturday.
The truth was that Port gifted Prenton three tries in the first half that sealed their fate.
It was the home side who broke the deadlock after 10 minutes, Martin Hitherington grounding after a good catch and drive.
But having taken the lead and held their own, Port then switched off, two poor scrums resulting in Prenton’s first try before the defence drifted, allowing Prenton to grab two more.
Two penalties from Elliott Edwards closed the gap to 19-11 but the damage had been done.
After the interval another penalty and a try took Prenton to 27-11 before Ellesmere Port shook themselves off and took the game to the visitors once more Gerry Phillip’s try converted to make it 27-18.
But in the last 10 minutes Port’s concentration lapsed again as a penalty and a try from Prenton took the game away from them.
“We played really well apart from the first-half lapse,” said Port head coach Dave Layder.
“If we can eliminate that, we can beat teams like Prenton. Thy didn’t score because they were better, they scored because we made it easy.”
On Saturday Port go to Helsby.
