THIS game had to be viewed as a potential banana skin on the footpath to possible promotion, particularly as Vandals had beaten York RI recently.

With Skipton only 13-6 to the good at half time and having had the advantage of the elements it would have been natural for worries to surface.

However, a thoroughly professional second half performance from the home team ensured that a comfortable win ensued.

Skipper Declan Hayes was rested with an infected knee, Carl Watts coming in at prop and Neil King moving to the centre of the front row.

The first 10 minutes saw Skipton apply some pressure, and when Adam Winthrop won clean two-handed ball at a line out - as he was to do all afternoon - Paul Lacy came off his wing to pop up between the centres and score wide out on the right.

Although Adam Oldfield missed the conversion, he successfully kicked a penalty after 18 minutes to extend the lead to 8-0.

On 26 minutes, with Halifax still to mount a serious attack, a defending five-metres scrum was disrupted and a hacked clearance fell nicely for Lacy.

He ran infield, passed to George Smithson and he threw a long pass to right winger Mike Beech who did well to score in the corner.

At 13-0 in the lead things were looking comfortable, but a lack of discipline in the last six minutes of the half saw two kickable penalties given away, and both were converted by Sutcliffe to make the score 13-6 to the Reds at half time.

Despite having the wind behind them in the second half, Vandals still found it difficult to get out of their half.

A lack of kicking ability at half-back proved to be their undoing - in fact one kick from their scrum half actually went 10m backwards!

Eventually after 5 minutes of the half the pressure told when Lacy scored his second try, with the visiting full back Crompton yellow carded for dropping on him after the try was scored.

This time Oldfield's conversion was good as a 20-6 lead opened up. On 25 minutes Vandals narrowed that lead to 20-9 with a long-range penalty to Sutcliffe.

Then followed probably as good a 15 minutes of rugby as has been seen at Sandylands this season.

Firstly Smithson burst from one 22 to the other before bemusing the full back with a delightful reverse flick to the unstoppable Mark Davidson, Oldfield again converting.

Just 3 minutes later and the lead was extended to 32-9 when repeated forward drives resulted in Neil King going over in the corner.

On 36 minutes Lacy completed his hat trick to make it 37-9 and within a minute Vandals' misery was complete when prop Helliwell was sin binned.

In the last minute Carl Watts' drive was halted on the line, but Duncan Brown followed up to score an easy try and round off the scoring to make the final score 42-9.

The last 11 minutes had brought four tries as Vandals were blasted away by a compelling performance.

Left wing Paul Lacy was undoubtedly the star of the show with a hat trick of tries and looked dangerous every time he touched the ball.

Despite missing four of their forwards for various reasons, the Skipton pack out- performed their opposite numbers in all phases, with Ian Scrivin, in particular, having an outstanding game.

Just four league games remain and four wins will guarantee promotion.

Given the fact that all of the top four have to play other top of the table teams - some twice - there is all to play for in the last month of the season.