Macclesfield came from behind twice to ensure a valuable win at Loughborough Students.

After surviving a tense final 10 minutes to deny the Students a late comeback, the Blues were able to set the record straight after losing at home back in October.

The visitors took hold of possession from the kick-off, however when the ball turned over high up the field, Loughborough countered with pace.

Stuart Hall’s blistering run through the centre was cut short as Josh Fowles caught up with the fly-half and a spectacular diving tackle brought him to the ground.

Despite the tackle, the Students were able to capitalise on the counter and the ball was switched out wide to Joe Burton on the left to score after five minutes. The conversion was off-target but the home side had established an early 5-0 lead.

Macclesfield went on the offensive once again; Ryan Parkinson and Matt O’Regan looked sharp going forward as the Blues were able to put pressure on the young defence.

Halfway through the first half the Students were able to take back control of the ball and there was a period of 10 minutes in which they had the Blues penned back at their goal line.

Loughborough even managed to cross the line twice, however the referee blew for penalty after penalty to restart the scrum, until finally Macclesfield were able to kick clear and relieve the pressure.

With just five minutes left in the first half, Dave Marwick was able to score the Blues’ first try after several chances high up the field. Captain Tom Eaton converted to go 7-5 up.

Loughborough’s second row James Freeman then saw yellow for a technical foul, allowing the Blues to go forward with more space as half-time approached.

Just before the whistle went, Eaton was on target once again with a penalty to extend the lead to 10-5.

Early into the second half, Hall missed his penalty attempt and, as the Blues took back possession, O’Regan was able to score down the left after good work by winger Fowles.

After receiving the ball from Fowles, O’Regan kicked the ball forward into space, caught it as it bounced up and crossed the line to cap off a well-worked try.  The conversion went wide to bring the score to 15-5.

Hall was able to make up for his earlier miss by scoring a converted try through the goal posts after a pass from winger Craig Dowsett.

Full-back Iain Meads was then able to take the Students back into the lead as he crossed the line down the right wing after the Blues were outnumbered in defence. Hall converted to give Loughborough a 19-15 advantage.

With just over 10 minutes left, O’Regan capped off a man-of-the-match performance by working well with full-back Matt King to score his second try.  Eaton converted to edge the Blues back into the lead.

Macclesfield then had to defend desperately for the remainder of the match – Tom Mantell, Dean Williams and Matt Owen in particular all made impressive tackles to stop the Students from creating a repeat of their late comeback in the reverse fixture.

Relief was felt by all Macclesfield players and fans as the referee blew for full-time as the Blues picked up their second win in a row and their third of 2013.

“Seeing the elation on the lads’ faces makes up for the days when you look at their faces and they’re covered with disappointment,” said head coach Geoff Wappett.

“It was tense, exciting and, when we did go behind, we retained our composure and got ourselves back into the game so all of those are big plusses really.

“That was a game that highlighted our set-piece play, I thought our scrummage and lineout stood up very well and put them under quite bit of pressure.

“We’d had a good week’s work and it culminated in a really effective Saturday afternoon, it’s hard to pick anybody out because everyone performed exceptionally well.

“We scored some good tries and made some good decisions about how to use the ball  because we drove the ball a lot with our forwards their defence became a bit tighter and left space outside. Our teamwork and whole attitude to the game ensured us our victory.

“I thought the lads really stepped up to the mark, O’Regan had a great game in the second half, Matt King was accomplished last week and did some good things this week.

“Matt Owen did well to step in at number 8 for Frankie Barker, and Tom Mantell into the second row worked well too.

“There’s definitely an opportunity for a run here, Cambridge have produced good results recently, they only lost 9-7 to Richmond last week and they’ve won at Fylde this weekend.

“I’m glad they’ve done well because it means there won’t be any undercurrent of casualness. We will have to be at our best to get a result.”