WINNINGTON Park suffered a late 29-26 at home to Sefton having looked like they had the game in the bag when with six minutes to go Park winger Nick Clawson roared over for his second try.

Sefton, who had only won one of their previous six games, had taken the lead after 17 minutes play and had harried and blunted Winnington’s attack throughout a frustrating game and were hanging on to the lead and had the win in sight.

Although a scrappy, stop-start game, the final minutes were coming down to a nerve-wracking and exciting end.

Alas, the cheers of the Burrows Hill faithful when Clawson raced over proved to be short lived as Sefton scored a try in the final play.

Winnington showed plenty of grit and determination, especially in the second half, but were lacking a huge dose of composure.

The Park backs delivered a horror-fest of poor passes, fumbled possession and stunted attack that was painful to watch. In fairness, Sefton were rapid in defence, but Winnington will reflect that they had plenty of opportunity to win this game. For a 20-minute spell in the second half, Sefton conceded 12 consecutive penalties and had two players sin binned and one sent off. Park did score a try during this period but the sharper, smarter team we saw at the start of the season would have been more ruthless. Park’s attack was like a dog with no teeth; gnawing and persistent, yes, but ultimately not adequate enough to beat the team bottom of the North Two West division.

Park’s tries came from Clawson, Alex Glendinning and Luke Cannings.

When Clawson roared over for his second try to give Park a four-point lead the Sefton players looked dejected as the Park players hugged and celebrated. Alas, it was all premature.

Winnington conceded two penalties and Sefton piled on the pressure in one last desperate attempt to they bagged a try in the corner which was successfully converted.

A last gasp victory for Sefton which, for much of the game, they had looked like they would win.

Park paid the price for poor ball control, a lack of composure and a glut of possession that they struggled to convert into points. All in all, a disappointing loss after an impressive performance last week away to Rochdale.

The intensity and composure dial needs turning up for Saturday’s game at Southport.

Starting team: Mike Eaves, Andrew Evans, Shaun Underdown, Dave Cross, Dan Snowden, Matt Treacy, Alex Glendinning, Dan Williams, Dan Berg, Alex Burrage, Sam Brookes, Ryan Williams, Luke Cannings, Nick Clawson and Chris Twigg.

Replacements: Lewis Pickering, Gary Dykes and Matt Fowler