CLECKHEATON gained revenge over Morley in a pulsating North One East derby at Scatcherd Lane, after a late Dale Breakwell penalty secured an 18-17 win.

Cleck lost 14-10 in the reverse fixture at home, a result which has proved costly in their attempts to chase down leaders York.

But in a tight-play off race with Moortown and Driffield, they maintained second spot thanks to this excellent win at fifth-placed Morley.

Cleckheaton were missing skipper Matt Piper and Joey Carley through injury, but they were the ones who made the better start.

At the first line out, Brad Marsden took clean ball and made several yards, before Morley infringed at the maul.

Breakwell slotted a simple penalty to make it 3-0 after three minutes and Cleck went further in front when a blind side burst by Jack Seddon saw him feed Mikey Hayward, who stepped inside the defence for his 19th try of the season to make it 8-0.

Breakwell’s conversion attempt went wide and Morley soon got their act together.

On 12 minutes, a great break by the full back allowed him to draw the defence and play the ball to Tom Richmond, who powered over the line. Mark Chester added the goal to make it 8-7.

Morley’s forwards then battered away without success before, on 22 minutes, Cleck's James Wilson popped up to crash over from short range and Breakwell added the extras to make it 15-7.

In the second half, it was Morley who had the better of the possession and on 48 minutes, Chester made a fine break and turned the ball inside to No.8 Darrel Griffin, who scored under the posts.

Chester’s kick brought it back to 15-14 and moments later,Wilson was shown a yellow card for not rolling away. The penalty was knocked over by Chester to give Morley the lead for the first time at 17-15.

Jack Marshall and Ollie Depledge both made good breaks for Cleck but those two moves were ended by a forward pass.

Breakwell then had an opportunity on 58 minutes to kick a penalty but it went wide of the right hand upright.

A series of penalties awarded against Morley at the ruck had the home fans getting agitated, but Cleckheaton just kept up the intensity and got over the ball as quickly as possible and waited for the error to arrive.

On 71 minutes, Breakwell lined up a 40 metre goal. He struck the ball well and it sailed over the bar for Cleckheaton to regain the lead at 18-17.

What should have been a tense final eight minutes was dominated by Cleckheaton. With time running out, the visitors were camped on the Morley line but couldn’t quite finish the job off.

They conceded a penalty and Morley advanced downfield, but a turnover was forced and the final whistle saw Cleckheaton record the victory.

Cleck’s front row were magnificent on the day and deserved the collective Man of the Match award.

Cleckheaton are back at home this Saturday, with 10th-placed Pocklington the visitors for a 3pm kick-off.