Macclesfield 17 Old Albanians 51
Bottom of the league Macclesfield hosted third-from-bottom Old Albanians at Priory Park in what was sure to be a real scrap, but Old Albanians made it four wins on the bounce with an impressive 51-17 victory.
A tight first half was started with a third-minute try for the visitors.
Albanians’ rolling maul is something the Blues failed to handle all afternoon and looked a constant threat, despite them serving notice by securing the first try from that tactic.
The early try from the away side seemed to spark Macc into life as, five minutes later, they produced a superb try.
A strong set piece provided good ball for the backs, and then a moment of brilliance from Elliot Brierley to burst through the defence and go over for the score meant the Blues had drawn level.
Macclesfield made it two tries in fairly quick succession, the backs once again showing good skill to take apart the opposing defence.
Quick hands from Tom Eaton and Sam James put the club’s leading try scorer, Matt King, in to score in the corner.
Old Albanians then pegged the Blues back before half-time, bringing the scores level on 32 minutes with an Ollie Cooper-Miller try.
A conversion and penalty from Richard Gregg meant a five-point difference in favour of Albanians at half-time.
Gregg had slotted the first two kicks of an afternoon to forget for place kickers on both sides.
A game the Blues – who’d broken their 10-match losing streak seven days earlier – were very much in at half-time was certainly lost in the second half.
Old Albanians ran away with it in the second period with an impressive display that started with a Jordi Pasqualin try.
James Speirs added another, with Albanians looking dominant in all areas of the pitch.
They put the Blues to the sword and took advantage of anything Macc gifted them.
Johannes Lombaard scored the third try in 20 minutes for the visitors and meant it was only getting tougher for Giles Heagerty’s men.
Josh Fowles scored a consolation for the Blues with another well-worked score which put the winger in to slide in the corner, Tom Eaton converting the score.
Three tries in the final six minutes added real gloss to the scoreline, but summed up the second half for the Blues.
Some strong play from the away team, combined with a high Macclesfield error count, created the tries from Andrew Berry, Dan Watt, and Mike Allan that meant the final score was 17-51.
Macclesfield travel to Blaydon this weekend in the North East, a side which lies mid-table and holds strong connections with Premiership side Newcastle Falcons.
