Walsall survived some injury time drama and hang on to their narrow advantage to secure a win in their re-arranged Midlands One West fixture. The hosts tested the Walsall defence during the opening quarter. But the visitors produced some very effective tackles and, once they gained possession, showed that they were also an effective attacking force. Indeed, during the first half especially, they should have taken greater advantage of the scoring opportunities that they had created. Unfortunately a failure to retain possession at crucial moments deprived them of two fairly easy scores. Roger Weston gave the visitors an early lead with a penalty. Two minutes later Gary McDermott levelled the scores for the hosts. It was not long, however, before Walsall’s attacking commitment was rewarded by a superb try. A sweeping attack from deep in their own half saw centre Richard Clarke, scrum half Neil Pittaway and prop forward Simon Weaver all make incisive runs. When stopped, the ball was quickly recycled and some well-timed passing resulted in full back Chris Mould breaking through the final tackle to score. Unfortunately, Weston’s difficult conversion rebounded off the goalpost. Walsall should have added further scores during the next ten minutes. They lost possession at crucial times, and these errors allowed the hosts to create their own scoring opportunities. It was McDermott that continued to taunt the Walsall defence as his team turned over possession and he ran through to score two tries in quick succession midway through the half. He converted one try, hit the upright with a conversion attempt and then later on hit the crossbar with a penalty attempt! This would prove to be crucial moments in the context of the final result! These scores gave Leek a 15 – 8 lead and it could have been even greater. A loose ball bounced kindly for Leek and a fifty meter potential try scoring run was only stopped by a superb chase and tackle by Jeffrey Williamson. Walsall finished the half strongly and some desperate defending resulted in the hosts losing players to the sinbin. Walsall took advantage of this and levelled the scores just before half time. They secured good lineout ball and then retained possession for several phases with Halbert, Dickson, Hickman, Benson and Vardarcik making good drives before Pittaway found Bradshaw in support. The prop forward’s powerful run proved to be unstoppable from five meters. Weston added the testing conversion. The second half saw both teams strive hard for the crucial scores, but neither team managed many defence splitting attacks. The loss of captain, Steve Halbert, through injury was a big blow for the visitors. But they took the lead after replacement Liam Taylor turned over possession and then a kick ahead was gathered by Chris Mould, who then managed to hold off his chasers as he made the forty five meters try scoring run. Once again Weston was accurate with his conversion from wide out. The hosts, however, managed to set up an exciting finish with a try late in the game. They used their powerful driving play to good effect as Ben Sims secured the touchdown after a lineout close to the Walsall line. Leek had another opportunity just before the final whistle. The final try scoring pass was dropped as they counter attacked from deep, and then they failed to take advantage of two opposition sinbins in the final two minutes. The final action saw a ten man Walsall scrum secure the possession that enabled fly half Matt Wood to put the ball out of play to end the game. The Walsall players and coaches will be delighted that, on this occasion, the team did not ‘leak’ any scores during the final few minutes.