With less than a quarter of an hour remaining the seconds were leading 29-27 but were unable to protect their slender advantage as fatigue started to kick in and they leaked four tries, three of which were converted. It was a disappointing outcome for the hosts after they had worked so hard to bring themselves back into contention.
Ben Dorrington was drafted in at the last minute to play at scrum half and produced a consummate performance as was only to be expected from an experienced, talented player. Olly Johnson impressed with his pace, work ethic and tackling which was of the highest order, unfortunately his commitment did not rub off on all his colleagues.
Joe Wallbank was cool and collected especially when dealing with a barrage of kicks which came in his direction. Mark Henderson worked hard, Alfie Bolton was irrepressible, forward Petar Alexov was a powerful nuisance before departing the action with an injury, and the seconds welcomed back Scott Manning for his first outing of the season.
Sedgley Park opened proceedings with a sixth minute unconverted try when one their centres blasted his way through a number of tackles. Ben Dorrington dummied his way over for the neatest of tries in the tenth minute converted by Alex Briggs.
Vale were punished for ball watching when they allowed Sedgley to poach an unconverted try in the fifteenth minute. As the opening quarter drew to a close Park increased their lead when their left winger crossed for an unconverted try.
In the twenty fifth minute Sedgley added to their score with another unconverted try before the Vale muscled their way into the act with two tries, one of which was converted.
From a move down the left flank a lurking Tom Smith powered his way over for an unconverted try in the twenty ninth minute. Alex Briggs followed up with a try in the thirty sixth minute which he converted to reduce Sedgley’s lead to three points. But a yo-yoing half ended with confusion breaking out around Vale’s goal line and another Park try.
The Vale began the second half by high stepping their way into the lead. Lee Starkey caught a cross kick from Alex Briggs for an unconverted try shortly after the restart. Vale went into the lead in the forty fifth minute when Alex Briggs kicked through to chase the ball down for an unconverted try.
Just as Vale’s supporters were having wild thoughts of a victory their dreams were shattered as the team’s boilers started to run dry with the inevitable result.
Many thanks to Reg Robinson for his notes.