The Blues struggled to convert their chances in wet conditions against Old Albanians, and their wastefulness proved costly as the hosts scored five tries to win.

With the only points coming from captain Tom Eaton’s two first-half penalties, head coach Geoff Wappett has urged his side to develop a cutting edge.

"We have decent approach work but when it comes to getting that last five yards we seem to lack a bit of confidence and when the opposition show stern resistance that’s enough to turn us away," he reflected

It was the Blues’ first trip down to the promoted Albanians, who have been in great form in the league, winning their last five out of six matches.

However after five minutes of play, Macclesfield were looking superior in set pieces and defended well whenever Old Albanians were on the ball.

The home side began to show their class, using experienced backs like Richard Gregg and James Spiers to threaten down the wings.

Dave Marwick and Martin Kent impressed with their tackling in the first half, the latter making a big tackle on centre Christoff Lombaard to put a stop to a promising attack.

On 10 minutes, Old Albanians took control of a driving maul to slowly move up the pitch, the ball was then switched out left for the Blues defence to clean up.

Macclesfield took the lead minutes later, Eaton kicking a penalty after the Albanians were punished for a bad tackle 20 yards from the line.

But midway through the half Gregg scored the Albanians’ first try, brushing off a weak tackle to jog over on the right.

Gregg then stepped up to take the conversion, the kick sailing wide to give the home side a 5-3 advantage.

After the restart, a lineout provided the Blues with their best display of attacking rugby; the ball being switched from Matt Rhodes to Elliot Brierley in the centre.

Keeping up the momentum, the ball was passed to Mike Finnemore, who was tackled before he could offload the ball.

Old Albanians took back control of the ball, and a tackle by Edd Stobart on James Shanahan that left the hosts’ captain needing the physio’s assistance, helped put a stop to the attack.

Richard Gregg added another penalty five minutes before half-time. It was then Eaton’s turn to try his luck from 35 yards out, and he landed it to make the score 8-6.

The Albanians were not content to enter the break with the score so close, and Arran McDougall was able to score just before the whistle.

While the skies were clear in the first half, as the sun went down the heavens opened and the players had to deal with much wetter conditions in the second half.

This didn’t stop Albanians’ Matt Chambers, who scored three minutes after the restart. Gregg was off target once again.

Much like last week, discipline became an issue and Kent was sinbinned for an offence in a scrum.

Alan Marsh also saw yellow later in the half for what Wappett described as a harsh decision.

Nonetheless, the Blues were one man down for most of the second half, and Old Albanians were able to hold possession for long periods of the game.

Daish was then able to score a converted try after 55 minutes to increase the lead to 25-6 and take the bonus point.

The depleted Blues did well to keep Old Albanians from turning the match into a cricket score as the home side probed and tested their defence.

Eaton showed good composure to find touch on several occasions after a few opportunities for the Albanians came close in the final 15 minutes.

However, Lawrence Rayner was able to score their fifth and final try at the full-time whistle, the conversion on target as the A’s claimed all five points.

Wappett added: "It was disappointing, we started off reasonably well and we got among the opposition.

"But when they made mistakes we didn’t follow them up and cash in. We did the hard work, and some of our approaches were quite tidy but we weren’t incisive enough to come up with the score.

"The tables turned slightly on us when we had two yellow cards in the second half.

"I thought the one on Alan Marsh was a bit stern. You almost didn’t see it, it was so innocuous.

"Martin Kent was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are very conscious of the discipline factor, although sometimes it’s indicative of a team under pressure.

"The weather did play a big part, we were playing right into the wind and you couldn’t kick to relieve pressure.

"Hopefully next week Tom Davenport will be back in the midfield and soon Dean Williams and Ryan Parkinson will start to make a contribution, hopefully even Chris Jones too.

"The lads will need to pick themselves up to take on Sedgley Park, it’s a must-win game.

"Both Loughborough and Sedgley won on Saturday, we’re conscious of the pressure it’s putting on us

"It’s not a pleasant situation but we have to face it full-on."