Macclesfield Blues maintained their fine home form despite being pushed all the way by National Two North strugglers, Luctonians.
A 79th minute Lewis Barker penalty was enough to see the Blues take the win against a Luctonians side who had pushed them all the way.
Both sides equally shared six tries witch create a nail biting climax, with Dave Marwick and Gregory Newton running over in the first half. Ryan Parkinson added Macc’s third just after the interval.
The home side started brightly, looking to rebuild the momentum following postponements since the turn of the year.
Macclesfield didn’t dwell and soon took the lead. An excellent lineout set-piece along with strong play from the forwards carved a gap and Marwick took his opportunity.
As strongly as the host’s started, the visiting side were not going to let Macc in for an easy task and soon had their first score of the game.
The Blues defence was caught napping and didn’t react to a quick tap penalty just a few metres out and the Herefordshire side were level.
Gregory Newton then set about regaining the Macclesfield lead. Some scintillating rugby from within their own half combined with the speed of Newton opened up the corner and the Blues were back in front.
In what was turning out to be a high scoring first half, Luctonians came back in rather controversial fashion.
A clearance from Tom Eaton appeared to have been helped into touch by a Luctonian hand but was not seen by the touch judge nor the referee.
From the resulting lineout, the visitors worked an opening and crossed the line to bring themselves to within two points.
After the interval, Macclesfield started strongly again keeping their visitors penned in their own half. But, on their first trip into Blues territory, they were able to take the lead for the first time working the overlap to score.
It wasn’t long before the Blues were back level however. After dominating at the scrum once more and winning the penalty, the Blues set piece worked well again and opened up space for Parkinson to score on the blind side.
Both sides had chances after to win the game with tries but in the 79th minute, Lewis Barked stepped up to knock over to present the win to the home side.
With the final kick of the game, Luctonians had a chance to level it once more but the kick fell well short.
Lee Sims
