Otley 14 Sedgley Park 25

There was bitter disappointment for Otley in this vital clash with Sedgley Park.This was epitomised when their No 8 Dan Hyde sank to the floor at the final whistle and had to be picked off the turf by Head Coach Peter Clegg.

This was the Cross Green side's second successive defeat against a team in the lower reaches of National League One and it leaves Clegg's men just two points above a relegation berth.

A worried Clegg said: "We made too many enforced errors in the first-half, we missed too many tackles and we gave away a couple of silly tries.

"We wanted to win ball and move it around but you have to have a platform to do that and we didn't really build a platform to get the quick ball that we needed to get two or three possessions."

Otley again made a poor start but, aided by high tackling by a side that are two places above them, they clawed their way into a 14-10 lead after 33 minutes.

However, in another mirror image of the Exeter game, the visitors got a try in first-half injury time. An up and under was spilled by on loan Newcastle Falcons winger Ollie Phillips straight to Park centre Chris Briers. He put fly-half Phil Jones in for the score.

What looked like a half-time advantage turned into a one-point deficit.

Clegg said: "Any try is bad when it goes against you but that was two seconds or so before half-time, and it was careless, clumsy.

"Then, because you have an inexperienced side, you try and force things in the second-half because you are behind.

"You admire the endeavour but it needs a calm head and a thought now and then and the simple things need to be done simply. When you have mastered those then you can move on but we didn't master the simple things in the second half.

"Lots of things could have been better but we had a centre missing for ten minutes in the second-half (Kyle Dench was sin-binned), which doesn't help, and when you are always on the back foot, trying to move the ball, it is a different game.

"I have no problems with the players that are playing, it is just a matter of them making the right decisions on the pitch."

Otley's failure to play in Park's half soon cost them, hooker Jonathan Roddam getting on the end of a punishing drive.

New home recruit Jon Benson landed a penalty in the eighth minute after a high tackle on Dench, and in the 12th minute, Otley had the lead from another Benson penalty but all the credit for that must go to home skipper Ian Shuttleworth.

He collected the ball in an unpromising situation near his 22 but, always willing to chance his luck, he darted between two would-be tacklers and set off a counter- attack in which he was tackled off the ball. Park full- back Matthew Riley was sin-binned and Benson's boot made it 6-5.

Five minutes later, a missed tackle by Benson meant Briers scored in the right corner but Benson made some amends with a third penalty in the 25th minute.

Centre Ian Voortman became the second Park player to have a ten-minute rest for a high tackle in the 31st minute, and two minutes after that, Otley back-rower Matt Stockdale went over in the right corner.

That was how the score remained until the 57th minute when Dench was yellow-carded and Jones landed the subsequent penalty.

Replacement Ben Lloyd became the third visitor to be binned seven minutes after that and Hall's clinching try for the visitors came from another cameo of Otley errors in the 70th minute.