Winnington Park Ladies 17-14 Burnley Ladies

LAURA Underdown’s late try was a reward for Winnington Park’s persistence as they came from behind to win a league game for the first time since March of last year.

Nessa Hadley converted, securing for the Northwich team a first success since switching to a new division and delighting a large crowd at Burrows Hill.

They had shown signs of a recovery during the second-half of a 31-12 defeat at Workington seven days earlier but fell behind to a soft try close enough to the posts for a simple conversion.

Thea Breau, captain for this season, gave her teammates a pep talk that prompted a spell of pressure that yielded tries for Jen Neary and Abi Hebert to make it 10-7 at the interval.

Park were wasteful after the break, when handling errors from the backs division prevented them from making the most of their forwards’ domination.

Instead Burnley notched another converted try at the end of a series of penalties.

Winnington responded, with Hebert and debutant full-back Danni Lydiate’s ferocious tackling a highlight, and Underdown delivered a decisive try.

Park will hope for more of the same when they travel to Bury on Sunday.