IF MORE ammunition was needed to prove how competitive National League Three North is it came last Saturday.

Of the six matches played, five were decided by seven points or less, and that was the third occasion this season when five games were as close or closer than a converted try, while on four other Saturdays, four matches have been 'nail-biters'.

Last weekend, Ilkley went down 18-14 at home to Hull, Cleckheaton beat Lymm 25-18 with a last-minute interception try that was converted, Huddersfield YMCA triumphed 29-22 at Birkenhead Park, Rossendale were beaten 21-19 by visitors Firwood Waterloo, and hosts Stockport squeezed past Billingham 31-27.

"If we had had the rub of the green, we could be second in the table where Wirral are, while, on the other hand, we could be right down near the bottom of the table," said Ilkley's head of rugby Rhys Morgan.

"We started the season off with a 65-0 home defeat to Sheffield Tigers, and three weeks later we lost 46-21 at Hull, but generally speaking we have competed well, and you must remember we are a young side."

Of course, referees can have more of an influence in a close contest than in a 45-0 drubbing, and Morgan certainly felt that way last weekend.

He said: "Elliot Morgan was sin-binned for us for knocking the ball on in a tackle, which cost us eight points and possibly 11 points, whereas one of the Hull players was not yellow-carded when he interfered after we took a quick tap penalty.

"I had a chat with the referee afterwards and I must be careful not to sound like a broken record when it comes to referees, but, despite the man in the middle, it was still a game that we should have won as we missed two kicks at goal and butchered a two-on-one."

Eighth-placed Ilkley, who are 16 points behind Sheffield in third and 11 points in front of Cleckheaton, who are in the highest of the three relegation berths, are at second-from-bottom Birkenhead Park on Saturday.

"We were awful in losing 41-13 at home to Park in November, so we are on a revenge mission, but must decide whether to beef the pack up by playing the experienced Ollie Renton from the start and moving forwards' coach Nathan Smith to blind-side flanker."