National League Three North: Cleckheaton 17 Ilkley 13

PLENTY of work remains to be done, but Cleckheaton took another significant step towards safety with this derby victory on a grey, drizzly and breezy afternoon at Moorend.

They were on 19 league points – eight points from safety in second from bottom on Saturday, January 16 – but three wins in their last four matches has almost doubled their tally of points to 33, lifted them a place up the table and left them just two points from climbing out of a demotion berth.

Cleckheaton's rugby chairman Neil Gillan has, as they say "done the maths", and reckons that, historically, another 18 points will mean they are safe, with scrum half Jack Bickerdike adding: "We need another four wins from our last eight matches and some bonus points as well."

Only three of those eight are at home (against Lymm, Wirral and Rossendale), while they still have to travel to Sheffield, Stockport, Rossendale, Birkenhead Park and Firwood Waterloo.

Bickerdike said: "We have a tough April but I reckon we need to reach 50 points, and we are targeting wins against Birkenhead Park, Stockport and Rossendale away, while we look to any of our home matches to get results."

On a pitch that had been rolled but which was heavy, referee Jordan Wagner issued five yellow cards – three to Cleckheaton (Jack Seddon, Mike Heyward and skipper Richard Piper) and two to Ilkley (Paul Petchey and Elliot Morgan) – but a key period was when the hosts survived having 13 men on the pitch for eight minutes around the hour mark without conceding anything more than a Joe Rowntree penalty.

An earlier penalty by Rowntree, which blew in on the wind, put the visitors ahead in the fourth minute during a period where Cleckheaton readily conceded penalties, and it needed a fine cover tackle by Bickerdike two minutes later to put right winger Petchey into touch inside Cleckheaton's 22.

After suffering four straight penalties in the opening ten minutes, Cleckheaton won two of their own, and from the second Ronan Evans kicked to touch in the right corner, from where Richard Piper was driven over from a line-out in the 12th minute.

Both sides then blew decent opportunities before Petchey received a yellow card for being offside on the half-hour.

It was a costly decision for Ilkley as Evans kicked the penalty to the left corner, and skipper Piper was again driven over.

Seddon was the next to spend ten minutes off the pitch just before half-time, a curiosity as the half drew to a close being the ball bursting with a loud crack as an Ilkley kick for touch landed on the spikes on the only section of railing that didn't have a protective top bar.

In the second half, Ilkley could make nothing of a good break by left winger JH Johnson before Heyward (high tackle) and Richard Piper were added to the yellow card count in the 56th and 58th minutes respectively.

Rowntree landed a penalty from straight in front for the second sin-binning to make it 10-6 but that was all they could add while Cleckheaton were short-handed, centre Matt Piper being instrumental for the home side with his pick and goes near the dug-outs as they largely kept ball in hand to frustrate the visitors.

Morgan was the last player to be sin-binned in the 68th minute for interference, and Matt Piper – Richard's twin brother – scored the try of the game two minutes later, running a beautiful angle onto his cousin Michael Piper's popped pass into his bread basket.

Evans' conversion made it 17-6, and all that flanker Pat Power's try in the 73rd minute did was to secure the visitors a losing bonus point as players from both sides were suffering from cramp after a physical battle in the mud.

Bickerdike said: "We had a disjointed first-half performance and didn't keep to our patterns, but we did that better in the second half.

"We stood up quite well with 13 and used Matt Piper like an extra forward.

"As for the yellow cards, we can be quite an indisciplined team at times."

Ilkley's head coach Rhys Morgan could not hide his disappointment at the manner of their defeat, saying: "There were some marginal decisions over selection, and one or two players needed to show me that I have made the right decisions but they have let me down.

"Taking nothing away from Cleckheaton but we played like a Yorkshire Division One club – no, that is a slight on a Yorkshire Division One club.

"It was our worst performance of the season in terms of mistakes and decision making, and we certainly need to be careful that we are not sucked into a relegation battle."

Ilkley are now only nine points and three places in front of Cleckheaton.