LEADING 31-10 five minutes into the second half, unbeaten league leaders Sedgley Park seemed well on their way to yet another big win when Tynedale went down to Coronation Street country on Saturday.

But a storming second half performance saw the Blue and Whites dominate proceedings, and while they couldn‘t quite manage to close the gap, they did enough to claim two value points, including their first four try bonus point of the season.

After the game, the Tigers were full of praise for Tynedale’s “great spirit superb and ball retention.”

A club spokesman said: “Tynedale’s head coach Andy Buist should be an extremely pleased man tonight with a huge effort from his squad, and you cannot take away from Tynedale, the sheer graft and effort this young squad put in to take two deserved bonus points.

”An excellent performance and they will be and should be pleased with their efforts on the day.“

Tynedale made a bright start, and the Tigers did well to hold up a powerful Tynedale drive over the line in the opening minutes.

Tynedale continued to press, and were rewarded with the opening points of the game on six minutes when outside centre Ashley Smith stroked over a penalty when another drive was held up illegally.

But then the Tigers roared, and for the next half hour, the Tynedale defence was torn apart like a Chittagong chital.

The Park pack took control, shoving Tynedale around mercilessly, and on eight minutes, quick release of the ball saw winger Jamie Harrison touch down in the left hand corner on eight minutes to make it 5-3.

The home side regained possession from the restart, and battered Tynedale into submission, allowing hooker Johnny Mathews to grab the second try on 14 minutes, with Steve Collins converting.

Try number three soon followed, and there were fears that Tynedale were heading for humiliation.

A deep kick inside the Tigers 22 was fielded brilliantly by Mike Waywell, who launched a great counter attack, linking up brilliantly with Matt Riley and Tom Bedlow before Mathews powered though for his second and Tigers’ third try on 22 minutes.

The Tigers had the bonus point in the bag on 25 minutes, when a poor Tynedale restart led to another devastating riposte, which started under the Tigers‘ posts, and ended with full back Andy Riley touching down under the sticks for Collins to make it 24-3.

In their anxiety to force the pace, Sedgley Park started to make errors, and a series of penalty offences finally resulted in a yellow card for tight head prop Ben Black.

Tynedale made their extra man count, and a slack pass into space allowed Tynedale to force their way back into the game with a try from skipper Matty Outson, converted by Smith, on 34 minutes.

It remained 24-10 at half time, but five minutes into the second half, the Tigers stretched away again, when Tynedale lost possession. and good work by flanker Danny Waddy sent Shaun Manley in for Tigers’ fifth try, which Collins converted.

It could have been worse for Tynedale when Park had a two on one break in the visitors‘ 22 , but it was foiled by a deliberate knock on.

The let-off seemed to inspire Tynedale, who were working hard to build on a decent spell of possession, retaining the ball well for winger James Clark to find his way over the line wide out on 52 minutes.

And eight minutes later, the gap was even narrower, as more thunderous play by the forwards ended with loose head prop Dom Connolly barging over between the posts, Smith’s conversion taking the score to 31-22.

Tynedale now really had their tails up, denying Park any decent ball, but the Tigers are not league leaders for nothing, and they pounced ruthlessly on a slip on 67 minutes, which saw full back Andy Riley break loose for the Tigers‘ sixth try.

Tynedale refused to lie down though, and had the last word when more superb ball retention enabled a good platform to be set up for replacement Tom McCullough to cross for the bonus point try, Smith adding the extras. Prop Ben Haigh was named Tynedale’s man of the match.