Whitby Maroons lose on the road at Bishop Auckland

The Maroons travelled north in the knowledge it would be a hard-fought fixture as both sides will have ambitions to be at the top of the league come the end of the season, writes Bruce Reed.

The match started in a tightly contested way with Whitby kicking a penalty through Stu Gregson to go 3-0 up early before Bishop Auckland’s strong tactical kicking game put pressure on the Whitby back three before the forcing their way over outside to go 7-3 ahead.

Whitby came back through a well worked maul allowing number 8 Liam Swalwell to cross and put Whitby 10-7 up after Gregson’s conversion.

The match was then stopped after a serious leg injury to a Whitby player, the play halted while medical attention was needed.

The game continued on an adjacent pitch and the scores were level at 10-10 at half-time

Whitby kicked off the second half and the match continued in a helter-skelter way before Bishop Auckland put themselves ahead through another converted try to make the score 17-10.

The match then stopped for another period of time when medical attention was sought for a Bishop Auckland player who suffered a similar serious injury type to that suffered by a Whitby player in the first half.

Bishop Auckland restarted much stronger and in the remaining 25 minutes scored three tries to make the score 39-10 at full-time.

Whitby host Gateshead this Saturday, 3pm kick-off