Otley 12, Coventry 17 With Otley’s fate already decided, it was Coventry who desperately needed the points in the battle to avoid the third relegation spot.

They succeeded in gaining the victory which secured their National One survival – but only just.

Otley strived hard in the last ten minutes but, as happened throughout the game, were unable to maintain control of the ball.

The exchanges were hard, which forced numerous errors by both teams, but the Cross Greeners should have had the game wrapped up long before their futile last effort.

They started confidently as Craig Hampson, at scrum half, made an early break to gain a penalty in front of the posts when pulled down.

It was missed but he carved Coventry open again, this time making it to the line.

Otley then had a let-off when they allowed winger Thomas Harris to race through to take the restart on the full and go clean through, only to drop the ball on the line.

However, he was on the shoulder of Seb Pearson when the No 6 beat a couple of tackles to finish off.

Otley suffered on 27 minutes when No 8 Ollie Stedman was shown a yellow card.

The resultant penalty set up a close-in line-out where, after facing desperate defence, Coventry got hooker Matt Price over near the posts to give scrum half Lee Audis a simple conversion.

The visitors went 17-5 ahead three minutes into the second half when full-back Daniel Richards came up into the line to stroll over.

Otley were creating opportunities but were failing in their final execution.

Having put a foot into touch in the first half when close to the line, winger Curtis Wilson was twice pulled back for a forward pass with the line open.

Otley got back into the game when, following a kick ahead, Stedman charged down a clearance and beat the cover for full back Ben Hough to convert from wide out.

A startled Coventry became very nervous but it was mainly due to Otley’s mistakes that they held out.

The win lifted the visitors up to eigthth from bottom and left already-doomed Otley having to make do with a losing bonus point.