Following an excellent first half Stockport had to resist a very physical approach by Altrincham Kersal in the second half but finally secured a 27-26 bonus point win, with a try deep into overtime. A good start saw Stockport go 10 points ahead within the first 5 minutes, they dominated possession and territory for the whole half, with AK only getting into the Stockport 22 three times but they scored on two occasions to reply to the three very well worked tries scored by the home side. At the break Stockport looked comfortable with a 22-12 lead. The second half was a different story, with Altrincham Kersal taking full advantage of a knock on at the kick off and camping in the Stockport 22. The home side’s accuracy deserted them and they were unable to break out and were under pressure for the whole half. With the visitors running out of front row substitutes the last quarter of the game was played with uncontested scrums, which was very much to their advantage (especially as the referee allowed them to continue with 15 players for the next 10 minutes before he was made aware that they should have gone down to 14.). However Stockport were awarded a penalty in their own 22 in the last minute and 10 minutes and 4 penalties against AK later the Stockport forwards drove over the visitors line to secure the one point victory.

It was wing Dudley Southern who got Stockport off to a good start with a penalty after only 30 seconds. Stockport followed with an excellent driving maul going 30 metres to secure a penalty. from the ensuing line out another good drive allowed the ball to be moved left and centre Nick Coupland gave Matt Blackman a short pass, which allowed his centre partner to run in through the defence. Southern converted for 10-0 after 4 minutes. Stockport resisted some good pressure by AK but the clearance missed touch and the visitors returned to the attack and scored an unconverted try on 14 minutes. More good play by the Stockport forwards took them into the Altrincham Kersal 22 and the ball was moved left to Coupland who fed Southern in a planned move and the wing ran in from 20 metres to score, his conversion made it 17-5 as the first quarter ended. Stockport failed to exit from the kick off and a controlled drive by the AK forwards gave them a converted try. The Stockport forwards again set up a position and a penalty by Southern came back off the posts, the visitors were penalised for crossing as they tried to clear and Stockport opted for a scrum, No 8 Ryan Hanson picked up and scored to make it 22-12 at the break.

The second half was a very different story with the visitors dominating and preventing Stockport getting out of their own 22 for most of the third quarter, which ended with the visitors moving the ball to the right wing who out paced the Stockport defence to close the margin to 22-19. AK then took full advantage of the uncontested scrums as they lost a prop, opting for a scrum 5 metres out and the No 8 picked up and went blind to score to make it 22-27 with the conversion and only 10 minutes to go. Despite having to drop to 14 men after the referee’s error was corrected Altrincham Kersal kept up the pressure until they conceded a penalty for a tip tackle, losing their No 7 to a red card. Despite the clock running out Stockport ran the ball and as AK gave away 3 penalties Stockport worked from the ensuing line outs to get into the visitors 22 and then excellent driving play gave another penalty, which was tapped and the ball was driven over by forwards supported by some backs for the winning try, Tom Gardner touching down some 10 minutes into overtime to secure what had looked like an unlikely victory 10 minutes earlier.

Next week Stockport are away to Warrington.