Ellesmere Port 10Parkonians 23
DAVE Layder still believes his Ellesmere Port side can achieve their pre-season goal of a top-four finish in South Lancs/Cheshire Three – but only if they get their act together.
They travel to bottom club Port Sunlight on Saturday after suffering a home defeat against Parkonians that left them third from bottom.
Frustration boiled over for Port in the first half and they allowed pressure in their favour to turn against them by arguing with refereeing decisions and losing yards.
This led to two penalties which were kicked over to give Park a 6-0 lead.
Another dispute with the ref saw a Port player sin-binned and Park ran the resultant penalty to score a converted try.
Facing a 13-0 half-time deficit Port decided to raise the tempo.
It wasn’t enough, however. Port did reduce the arrears with a Paul Doyle try but Park hit-back, converting their own try to make it 20-5.
Gerry Phillip crossed the whitewash to get Port into the game at 20-10 but they never quite had enough to catch up as Park kicked a late penalty.
“We put ourselves under a lot of pressure and lost a lot of yards through arguing,” said coach Layder afterwards.
“But I still believe if we get ourselves together and put a run together we could realistically make the top four.
