IN ONE of their rare below par performances, Caldy lost their second game of the season to third-placed Altrincham Kersal.
While the Wirral team remain top of the league and few teams in this tight league are likely to go unbeaten it does put the pressure on with tough away games to come.
The opening period did not bode well, after Caldy kicked off they rarely saw the ball and after five minutes the visitors opened the scoring with a penalty kick in front of the posts.
Finally, able to gain some possession, Caldy were given a penalty kick from over 40 metres out. Marcus Coast made good contact but the ball struck the posts and whilst trying to clear, Altrincham knocked on, giving Caldy a scrum on five metres.
Jake Lyon almost found a way through and the ball was moved wide, where Coast showed his strength in the tackle and fed the ball to Pennington who crossed the line for a try and a 5-3 lead.
Some solid work from the Caldy forwards, particularly Phil Woods and Jake Lyon, meant another penalty was not long away and Coast found his mark to take the lead to 8-3.
Dirk Willens, in his final game before returning to Holland, showed some good interlinking with his forwards and for a period Caldy showed some invention on the wings and in the centre. The Altrincham defence withstood this pressure and just before the half hour they drove on from a five metre line-out and prop Steve Denehey burst through to score and a good conversion from Rick Lamerton gave them the lead at 8-10.
And eight minutes later a combination of good handling, accompanied by unconvincing Caldy tackling, saw the visitors score a Altrin-Leigh cham continued to show more invention and kept up the pressure on a lack-lustre Caldy team.
At the interval they still maintained their lead at 8-15.
Early in the second period, Caldy made a tactical change, bringing Culligan on for Wylie at full-back. The better team extended their lead further in somewhat controversial fashion, with a move that included a knock-on and forward pass, but there was no doubt about the conversion from the touchline to extend the lead to 8-22.
Further problems for the hosts came as Jes Lamb was sent to the sin bin. Caldy did manage to reduce the arrears with another penalty kick from Coast, but it always looked an impossible task.
With no game next week Caldy will have time to put things back on track before facing Rochdale at home in the final game of the year.
