Aire Nick it on muddy derby day in the park

NICK Holdsworth was hero, villain and hero as Aireborough took another large step towards safety on a muddy pitch at Nunroyd Park.

The fly half firstly landed a penalty to break the deadlock in the second half but then spilled a pass from which fellow strugglers Baildon scored a try before he landed the match-winning kick with six minutes left.

The one-point derby triumph followed Aire's even more last-gasp 25-24 victory at basement boys Rotherham Phoenix a fortnight previously, with the two victories enabling them to climb over the Jenny Laners and leave them in the second of the two demotion berths.

"It was the first muddy conditions that we have played on this season," said Holdsworth, who was wearing his familiar black scrum cap as he tried to dictate matters from half-back, "and it meant that there was no point in having a long run-up when you were taking kicks at goal.

"It was difficult to kick goals and the idea was to keep play in their 22 and pressurise them, and the winning kick was about at my limit in terms of length."

Defences were generally on top in a first half that was noticeable for a fairly even penalty count, with both sides understandably preferring to make ground via kicks rather than riskier handling moves.

Baildon thought they had scored the day's first points in the 25th minute when a flat Holdsworth kick landed right in Baildon centre Marcus Dracup's bread basket in midfield.

He kicked ahead, and vice-captain JJ O'Connell pounced on the loose ball for a try, only to be rightly penalised for being just in front of the kicker.

"That was frustrating as I thought we deserved to win," said O'Connell, whose second-from-bottom team now trail third-from-bottom Aireborough by three points.

"Conditions definitely suited Aireborough the better but we had 46 players available for selection this week and we had 25 training on Tuesday and 30 on Thursday, so we are getting some players back."

The same can be said of Aireborough, whose dominance in the scrums was clear cut for the most part without them turning that superiority into points.

After O'Connell's disallowed try, Baildon moved the ball crisply among their backs ten minutes later, only for the pass to left winger Nicky Lister to go forward.

The home side seemed to create an overlap on the left in the 38th minute but a runaround move slowed the attack and Baildon won possession and cleared.

Holdsworth's first shot at goal came a minute later from near the left-hand touchline but he was short.

Someone needed to score to stop the RFU website from showing 0-0 and having far-flung followers from thinking that the game had been abandoned, and Holdsworth obliged in the 49th minute with a penalty after Baildon had interfered with scrum half Ollie Catherall.

It always looked on the cards that the match would be decided by an error, and Holdsworth's mistake in the 56th minute could have been decisive.

He dropped a low pass and Baildon replacement Will Craven picked the ball up and had the speed and strength to make the line.

Holdsworth missed a kick at goal on the hour after the visitors were offside just outside their 22, and another penalty chance went begging for him five minutes later.

Baildon seemed like they might survive when they pilfered possession and cleared their lines in the 74th minute following a strong run by Aireborough winger Kris Brook but a high tackle by visiting fly half Matt Withers gave Holdsworth that final chance to seal the hosts' narrow victory, his kick just having the legs to go over.