Stockport suffer defeat in first home game

Stockport had another tough game against a Cleckheaton side that was harder running, better organised and much faster. Despite being a training focus in the week it was the tackling that let Stockport down, with the Cleckheaton Number 8 proving particularly difficult to stop but Stockport never coped with the pace of the Clackheaton wide players. Cleckheaton scored 31 points in each half without reply from the home team, a total of 10 tries and 6 conversions gave the visitors a 62-0 victory.

The Stockport forwards were under pressure at the early scrums but as last week they regained parity as the match went on. Several opportunities were created by Stockport but the Cleckheaton defence held firm. The main features of the first half were the very accurate kicking from hand by the visitors fly half and the well planned moves by their backs that took advantage of the territory gained. 5 tries were scored in the first half, with 3 conversions, two tries came with drives from line outs, one from a kick ahead, one from a tapped penalty 5 metres out and one from a well worked backs move.

The second half started with a very powerful run by the Cleckheaton No8 going 30 metres to score under the posts. The left wing won the race to touch down a kick ahead to score and then ran in a second as Stockport were turned over in the visitors 22. Another run in from half way took the score to 55-0 before a Stockport attack broke down and Cleckheaton completed a 95 metre move to score in the last minute to take it to 62-0.

Next week Stockport are away to Rossendale, which will be another tough game.