As the Conference B season begins to wind down the battle to edge away from the relegation zone was continued at the Memorial Ground between two clubs who were in grave danger of becoming embroiled, unless a victory could be achieved, and while Altrincham Kersal 2 are already down, the trapdoor is still open for the club that is going to finish next to bottom, currently Chester 2 with 17 points. They are three points behind Wilmslow but have four games yet to play, beginning with a home game against the Vale on Saturday; Wilmslow now have only one fixture to fulfil hence the importance of a positive result against the Vale.

But at the final whistle an excellent team performance from the visitors ensured that they live to fight another season in the prestigious Bateman BMW Premier League, while the Cheshire side's fate hangs in the balance.

Although the Vale registered an emphatic home victory against Wilmslow, 52-8, at the beginning of March the stakes were much higher for both clubs two weeks later. The odds swung in the home side's favour at half time when the Vale's wind assisted lead of 11-0 did not appear enough, even to their most die hard aficionado, or to a large compliment of supporters on the touch line, which included the club coach and his team.

Despite having the gale in their favour the Vale struggled to break out of their own half and make any headway against Wilmslow but the siege was lifted in the tenth minute when the stylish David Haigh made on of his breaks to race eighty metres for an unconverted try that had class stamped all over it.

Chances were created by the Vale but it all became a little frantic, some promising situations were not fully exploited as players hung onto the ball fractionally too long, ignored those around them, or fluffed their lines at critical moments in their effort to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Their only points came from penalty goals kicked by Aaron Melville, in the thirty fourth and forty first minutes respectively, who once again had a magnificent game pulling all the right levers at number ten and using his vast experience to maximum effect to enhance his side's cause.

A slender half time lead caused some furrowed brows at half time as the wind continued to howl but the worry lines swiftly disappeared when Olly Dobson spotted a gap and confidently sprinted forty metres for an unconverted try after three minutes play in the second half.

While replacement Bob Mudd was in the sin bin Wilmslow's hooker O'Connor kicked a penalty in the forty fifth minute, but the Vale regrouped, tackled energetically and covered acres of ground to prevent Wilmslow exploiting any situation that arose.

Once back to full strength the Vale reclaimed the high ground in the sixty first minute when following a flowing threequarter move, characterised by some slick passing, Jimmy Birchall punched through a number of tackles for an unconverted try.

While Vale were patting themselves metaphorically on the backs at the quality of their try, Wilmslow brought them down to earth immediately with a try from Matt Pearson, converted by O'Connor. Vale responded to this second wake up call impressively, hooker Simon Harrison scoring an unconverted try wide out in the sixty seventh minute.

Two minutes later Haigh cut loose again, Andy Garnett had tracked his move and was ideally placed to receive a try scoring pass, Melville put over the conversion. It was fitting that the final try should be scored by Melville, a player who had played a major part his side's victory, the stand off converted to nail down a win in a game that had implications for both clubs and must have been on the radar of all the players involved in what was in reality, a pressure cooker situation.

Another energetic display in the boiler room from Ryan Needham earned him the man of the match award following an impressive Vale performance that contained the odd glitch and lapse in concentration in particular when it appeared that not enough points had been squirreled away in the bank in the first forty.

Vale A: S Coulshed; J Birchall, J Antcliffe, D Haigh, W Blythe; A Melville, O Dobson; M Field, S Harrison, A Cowey; R Needham, S Quick; O Cowey (Capt), A Arnett, J Hesketh. Replacements used: W Bartle, R Pillow, R Mudd