Stockport travelled over the Pennines to Harrogate for their latest game in National League 2. They earned a single losing bonus point but it could have been so much more. The opening exchanges showed that the home side had a well tuned back line who repeatedly moved at speed and in numbers. It was 13th minute before this brought them some points on the board when the Harrogate 14 broke the try line on the right for an unconverted try. 5-0

Stockport then woke up to the task in hand and it was the last time it the game that their defence would be breached in this way. The pack matched their opposite numbers especially in set pieces and this indirectly brought them two Josh Longmore penalties before the 30th minute for a 5-6 lead.

This goaded the home side into a determined response and only a couple of minutes more had elapsed when they took the lead again with a drop goal, kicked whilst an eminently kickable penalty advantage was being played. 8-6. The visitors would have happily settled for that deficit at half time but conceded yet another penalty right at the break. 11-6.
The second half was a messy affair with a lot of unforced errors by both sides. After 15 minutes Stockport’s Jamie Anthony choose to stab a low ball into the corner with players in support outside. The result was that Harrogate were forced to carry the ball over their own line. From the 5 metre scrum Stockport’s No.8 Jordan Pearson launched an assault on the Harrogate and managed to touch down. 11-11.

This again seemed to spur Harrogate into a new effort and the next 25 minutes were a barren period for Stockport. Their lineout lost the security it had enjoyed earlier and they were also every busy dealing with the homeside’s No.8. Two more Harrogate penalties took their lead to 17-11 with less than 5 minutes when then ran in a second try. It was like the parting of the Red Sea with the Harrogate fly half running through a crowd of Stockport defenders without any of them getting a hand on him. 24-11.

Stockport rallied immediately and the closing moments could have brought an unlikely draw. Firstly their replacement 10 Alex Zavallis-Roebuck made a clean break into the Harrogate 22 and passed outside to Michael Bayssat for the Frenchman to score under the posts. 24-18.

Stockport attacked again from the restart and not for the first time this season were left chasing a result in the dying seconds only to be counted out by the referee’s final whistle.