Morley 15 Chester 11

SIMON Bradshaw booted Morley to a morale-boosting victory that left promotion-chasing Chester stunned at Scatcherd Lane on Saturday.

Chester arrived in second place in SSE National League Three North with 9 wins in 11 games, but despite having more possession and dominating much of the first half they were made to look ordinary by a determined home side.

The Maroons were far from fluent and failed to cross for a try, but showed a much improved defensive effort and had a star in winger Simon Bradshaw who landed five penalties from six attempts in a great display of goal kicking.

A run of penalties put Morley on the back foot in the early stages, but they held out as the visitors twice chose to go for a try when presented with kickable opportunities only to be met with stubborn resistance.

Chester's inability to find a way through saw them frustrated with fly-half Liam McGovern resorting to trying a drop goal from 30 metres out and sending the ball just the wrong side of the posts.

Even when the visitors had an extra man advantage they struggled to make their possession pay after Simon Bradshaw was caught offside and sin-binned on 21 minutes.

Their best chance went as winger Peter Rees dropped the ball on the 22 metre line with the line looking open.

Chester finally nudged ahead on 31 minutes when yet another penalty was this time kicked by centre Lloyd Hayes, but Morley responded and Bradshaw's first act after coming back on was to have a go with a difficult penalty kick. Although his effort fell just short he was on target with a second effort from closer to level the scores on 37 minutes.

Chester were then reduced to 14 men a minute later when Will Brown was yellow carded and the hosts had the bit between their teeth.

After the move of the match started by Ben Johnson's long pass to centre Charles Hough they were soon attacking the Chester line forcing another penalty that was duly kicked by Bradshaw to make the half time score 6-3 in favour of the home side.

Early second half pressure from the Maroons went unrewarded and their opponents levelled with a second Hayes penalty on 54 minutes, But back came the hosts as Bradshaw landed to excellent kicks to nudge them six points ahead with 15 minutes left.

Chester wasted a good opportunity with a knock-on after scrum-half Josh Leach broke into the home half on a scything run, but they did not waste their next chance as Leach again made inroads and Andy Baston charged over.

Crucially thogh, Hayes had picked up an injury and the visitors had to change kickers with McGovern taking over only to push the conversion attempt wide. He also missed a kickable penalty with five minutes to go and the Maroons stayed a point ahead.

Urged on by the crowd, Morley continued to repel their opponents into injury time and after Greg Moore's fine kick had won them possession deep in Chester territory they put the icing on the cake when Bradshaw landed his fifth penalty with the last kick of the game.