Huddersfield fell to a disappointing 33-24 defeat to Sedgley Park Tigers in a strangely lacklustre performance at Lockwood Park.
It means successive defeats for the first time this year from ‘Field, who had previously been the form team in National League II North.
Sedgley Park made a bright start to the match and almost immediately caught Huddersfield out down the left wing, with a swift attack being halted by Tom Hodson’s tackle.
It didn’t take long for the away side to make the breakthrough though, when a passing move across the face of the Huddersfield defence found Andrew Riley on the right wing to put the ball over the line, converted by Stephen Collins.
Huddersfield recovered from their slow start and a good move saw Elliot Knight run at pace with the ball, stopped by the Sedgley Park defence.
The home side got on the scoreboard on 11 minutes with Joel Hinchliffe’s penalty going between the posts.
The game now settled into an even contest and Sedgley Park won their own penalty 10 minutes later, with Collins landing it.
Huddersfield hit back straight away, a great run by Elliot Hodgson after picking the ball up on the halfway line, giving Huddersfield good territory before the ball came to Tom Hodson to make sure of the try, Hinchliffe’s conversion levelling the scores at 10-10.
Sedgley Park edged back ahead five minutes later with another penalty from Collins and they held out from prolonged Huddersfield pressure to go in at the break in front.
Sloppy ball work saw Sedgley Park break through straight after halftime, with Andrew Riley having too much space to run into down the left wing and score an easy unconverted try.
Another Sedgley Park try followed on 50 minutes, with a big push seeing Rhys Davies force the ball over to put the away side 23-10 up.
Huddersfield just hadn’t got going since the interval and were struggling to maintain any sort of possession, with several spills of the ball.
It took Sedgley Park just three more minutes to score again, another strong push helping Juan Crous on his way to putting the ball over.
Finally the game seemed to be put out of reach with 12 minutes remaining.
A kick that had looked to be short fell to Andrew Riley on the right wing for his third try and put Sedgley Park 33-10 up.
However, Huddersfield then scored with their first attack of note in the second half, Nick Rhodes picking the ball up and driving through a spacious away defence to score, Hinchliffe’s converting.
And Huddersfield at last improved during the last 10 minutes, completing the scoring with a try from sub Nick Rawsthorne following a good run from him, with Hinchliffe’s successful conversion being the last kick of the game and pulling the score back to 24-33.
It was a day to forget for the home side, who weren’t at their best but with two weeks until their next fixture at Birmingham & Solihull there is plenty of time to come up with a big response.
Huddersfield: Hodson, Knight, Hodgson, Owen, Clark, Hinchliffe, Jeffrey, Purcell, Morrill, Battye, Malthouse, Rhodes, Thornton, Lewis, Sharpe. Subs: Bradley (J), Bradley (L), Sanderson, Rawsthorne, Walker (H).
Sedgley Park: Holloway, Riley (A), Parrott, Riley (M), Harrison, Collins, McShane, Ashcroft, Blackwell, Black, Quickenden, Crous, Davies, Emerson, Kamprey. Subs: Warrington, West, Smith, Wilkinson, Urmston.
