Dinnington head towards the drop

YORKSHIRE ONE

DINNINGTON appear to be heading towards relegation, after missing out on an opportunity to stir things up at the bottom of the table on Saturday.

The visitors made a strong start to the game, putting Huddersfield under pressure from the kick-off.

A string of early penalties looked to have brought its reward when after only two minutes Ryan Donnelly took a quick tap to score under the posts – only to be brought back for not playing through the mark.

If this seemed unfair to Dinnington, having a player sin-binned a minute later just added to their woes.

However, for the time he was off the pitch, Dinnington matched everything that Huddersfield could throw at them and the scoreline was still blank by the time he returned to the fray.

Unfortunately, within two minutes Dinnington went behind when Huddersfield scored a breakaway try.

There was little between the two sides and Dinnington came straight back to level the scores when John Marshall got the touchdown after the forwards had driven a maul over the line.

There was then a lot of to-and-fro and both sides wasted possession unable to counter a strong wind blowing across the field.

The wise option would have been to keep the ball close to the forwards but Dinnington’s in-built desire to run the ball cost them when a pass held up in the wind letting Huddersfield in for a try 10 minutes before half-time.

The home side then kicked a penalty just before the break to lead 13-5 at the change of ends.

There was no panic in the Dinnington ranks but they knew they had to start the second half as well as they had done the first.

However, a string of errors allowed Huddersfield to extend their lead with a try in the corner in the opening minute.

It was a sign that Dinnington were still in the game when 15 minutes into the half, Huddersfield had a player sin-binned for repeatedly infringing at the breakdowns as the home defence came under pressure.

Five minutes later Dinnington came close to scoring when Will Marshall was held up over the line but play came back for an earlier penalty offence and Chris Williams kicked the points.

Further pressure failed to break through the Huddersfield defence and the only opportunity was a penalty kick at goal which was off target.

The game was decided 10 minutes from time when a quickly taken penalty by the home number eight saw him scoring under the posts, although there was a suspicion that the ball had not been played through the mark as had happened to Dinnington in the opening minutes of the game.

Dinnington have seven games left, five at home, but will need to improve their consistency.

Rumours of being awarded the points from the Bridlington game could act as a boost but it is victories that are required.

On Saturday Dinnington are at home to Pontefract in a game that has already been postponed twice.