Winning run halted

A slightly depleted side travelled to Ellesmere Port this weekend and got a good hard mach against the mid table hosts.
The early minutes went the home sides way as Hoylake were continually penalised for off side at the ruck, and the early scrums were controlled by the Ellesmere Port pack the heavy ground not holding up to any resistance. But despite the pressure Hoylake’s defence kept their try line in tact and put play back into the Ellesmere Port half. Poor discipline gave more penalties to Ellesmere Port, which they then attempted to kick, missing the points. An Al Parkinson try was then disallowed judged to have come from a forward pass!
When the deadlock did eventually break it was from a solid scrum defence on Hoylake’s 5m line, but the home side went over in the blind side corner, converted, to give them half time advantage at 7-0.
Holylake had finished the 1st half strongly and continued that pressure in to the beginning of the 2nd half and a loose ball was hacked across to stand in scrum half Jay Baldock who ducked and weaved to go under the posts for Hoylake’s first try. Conversion ably taken by Chris Whitely.

Good rugby followed by Hoylake despite the intervention of the whistle and soon Al Parkinson made up for the earlier disappointment when C Whitely span an inspired pass out wide from a slow ruck, then soft hands out to Parkinson who charged through in the corner, also converted by Whitely, to keep his injury comeback record for kicking at 100%.
The last 20 minutes saw the game turn scrappy again until Ellesmere turned up the heat, electing to scrummage a number of close in penalties only to be turned over and also held up on crossing the line. The Hoylake defence was strong until the closing minutes when the big second row ploughed through a couple of missed tackles to score under the posts, converted with the score at 14-14. With only 2 minutes left on the clock Hoylake battled to do something with what little possession they could gather, but the clock beat them.
In fairness a draw was a fitting result for the game.
Man of the match was a difficult call but once again Jay Baldock stepped in to fill the vacant half back slot and was not found wanting.
Next week Wallasey at home.