Wharfedale 28, Sedgley Park 29

This SSE National League One campaign is rapidly becoming a season of near misses for Wharfedale.

The loss to Sedgley Park followed a 23-20 setback at Stourbridge and a 21-17 defeat at Rosslyn Park.

Throw in a 21-20 reverse at home to Birmingham & Solihull in September and a pattern is beginning to emerge.

Paper-thin tackling gifted Park both of their first-half tries and there were also some expensive second-half goal-kicking misses which cost the Greens seven points.

“We are playing some good rugby,” admitted Wharfedale’s player-coach Tom McGee.

“We have been in our last three matches and we have to keep concentrating on that.

“We can’t moan about injuries to players as the players that are coming in are good enough for us to win games.”

Second row Joe Quinn (shoulder) and centre and skipper Andy Hodgson (knee) had to come off injured in the second half but Wharfedale’s chairman of rugby Michael Harrison said: “We think Andy’s is just an impact injury, so he should be OK, but we won’t know more about Joe until training on Tuesday night.”

The Dalesmen started the game in a very positive manner, earning an early penalty, which they missed, and blowing a decent opportunity when recalled centre Tom Davidson knocked on in midfield.

However, their efforts were rewarded in the 12th minute when mobile hooker Ben Sowrey went over in the top left-hand corner after he had made the initial break and scrum half Philip Woodhead had found himself in space.

Sedgley Park looked threatening themselves, however, and winger Michael Dutton took advantage of some awful home tackling to score in the 18th minute, centre Matthew Riley converting.

Six minutes later, Sowrey made another break and Woodhead was backing up to score, winger James Druce converting to make it 12-7.

Missed tackles again proved costly for the Greens though as Riley scored and converted in the 35th minute but, given a boost by another fine carry by No 8 Richard Brown, Wharfedale took the half-time lead with a Druce penalty in the 39th minute.

Despite a loose pass, Park re-took the lead three minutes after half-time, full back Richard Wainwright crossing the whitewash, Druce’s second penalty success in the 45th minute reducing the advantage to a point.

Replacement Gregory Smith scored and converted his try in the 57th minute to make it 26-18 to the visitors but the Greens finally got a head of steam around the hour with tries by right winger Scott Jordan and lively flanker Aaron Myers to lead 28-26.

The second-from-bottom Dalesmen (Birmingham & Solihull overtook them today) had to be content with two bonus points, however, as Smith’s 69th-minute penalty won it for the Mancunians.