Dinno can’t make possession pay off

THIS was one that got away for Dinnington.

They had plenty of possession and pressure and won several penalties in the second half as they put Scarborough on the back foot, but failed to put points on the board.

Their fate this season will now almost certainly be decided on the result of their trip to North Ribblesdale.

Dinnington made a strong start to the game but their season-long problem of failing to control their possession allowed Scarborough to come back.

With six minutes played Scarborough took the lead when they broke away to score a converted try.

The visitors then had a period of pressure and broke through in mid-field to go 14-0 ahead.

Play became stuck in the Dinnington half and Scarborough missed two chances to extend their lead as both a penalty and then a drop-goal attempt missed the target.

In the latter stages of the half, Dinnington managed to work they way out of defence but an intercepted pass on half way gifted Scarborough a third try.

There was still time for Dinnington to mount another attack and their forwards had the visitor’s defence back-pedalling.

On the stroke of half time Dinnington missed a chance to get on the scoreboard when David Longstaffe got over the line only to have the ball knocked from his grasp before he could touch down.

Scarborough failed to deal with Dinnington’s restart and this gave the home side an excellent opportunity to make an early breakthrough at the first scrum.

However, it resulted in a Dinnington player being sin-binned instead.

Ten minutes into the half, as tempers began to flare, the referee sent a player from each side to the bin to calm down.

Five minutes later, Dinnington broke through when skipper Matthew Starr ran from outside the visitor’s 22 to score.

The home side thought they had scored again soon afterwards but Tom Doughty’s try was disallowed by the referee who bought play back to award Dinnington a free-kick.

Dinnington were pounding away at the Scarborough line and it was no surprise when another visitor was sent to the sin-bin after a succession of penalties.

The home side took advantage almost immediately as John Marshall touched down.

Chris Williams added the conversion.

The game was there to be won but Scarborough rallied and, after missing a penalty kick two minutes before, they put the game out of Dinnington’s reach when they found a gap in the middle of the defence to run in their fourth converted try.

There was still time for Dinnington to reply and a minute before time Longstaffe broke from the halfway line to score in the corner but it was too little, too late.

Dinnington now have the long trip to North Ribblesdale which if they do not win will make the journey back seem even longer – and they have lost on their last five visits.