Odsal Sedbergh 12, Brighouse Rangers 14

Odsal Sedbergh put up a valiant fight in their Pennine League Division Two derby before losing to Brighouse Rangers yesterday.

Sedbergh faced a tough task against leaders Rangers and certainly had their hands full playing uphill in the first half.

The early stages were a tussle, with both sides struggling to hang on to the ball.

The first major talking point came after 11 minutes when Sedbergh second row Nick Chapman was adjudged to have used his knees in the tackle for a second time and was dispatched to the sin bin.

Rangers quickly capitalised when hooker Stu Proctor dived over under the posts.

A string of penalties littered the half but Rangers were able to add to their lead when prop Lee Buckley crashed over for another try.

Sedbergh were forced to put in a real defensive effort as Rangers made full use of the considerable slope, and just before the break they were punished by a third try.

After a Sedbergh knock-on, Karl Frankland fed the impressive Andy Sagars, who barged his way over, Reece Spurr adding the extras.

As the second half began, Sedbergh were lucky to see a Rangers try disallowed for a forward pass and promptly came firing back.

The home side applied some real pressure to Rangers’ line and could have scored had the ball not been fly-kicked away for a drop-out.

However, it wasn’t long before Sedbergh finally breached their opponents’ line.

After some neat handling, winger Jared Priestley found himself in possession in the corner and put in a neat kick before collecting to score, stand-off Liam Coe gratefully adding the goal.

Sedbergh continued to press, with veteran John Exley continually asking questions of Rangers’ defence.

A second Sedbergh sin-binning indicated the writing on the wall but with minutes remaining the lively Coe intercepted a long ball and outpaced the Rangers defence to dive over under the sticks.

Coe converted to leave Sedbergh just two points adrift at the final whistle.