n Knutsford 14 n Linley 26

KNUTSFORD rounded off their South Lancs/Cheshire Division Three season with a defeat to Linley on Saturday.

It sees Blues finish 10th out of 11 in the table.

The early exchanges saw Knutsford dominate and play some of their best free flowing rugby, but they were unable to convert their dominance into points.

The visitors established a foothold in the game and scored a try, soon adding a converted effort to lead by 12 points.

Knutsford hit back before the break when Stefano Spinola charged down a kick and scored between the posts and Alex Malcolm converted to reduce the arrears.

They were nearly level following a fine run by Malcolm which opened up the Linley defence, but Jon Fuller was unable to take what would looked a try-scoring pass.

Knutsford pressed for an early score after the interval but again the visitors’ defence held firm and after a rare sortie into the Knutsford half the scored to increase their lead.

This set back spurred the home side and they dominated the proceedings.

Their efforts were rewarded when Dave Howard crashed over for a try which Adam Elleray converted.

The Blues then chased their third try but a series of penalties conceded by the visitors prevented them from adding to their score.

Blues were convinced that they had scored on two occasions but these were not given by the referee and they then conceded a fourth try when the visitors pounced on an error following a hack up field.