Relegation staring Otley in the face after rivals rally to victory with three late tries

OTLEY’s fight to beat the drop suffered a crushing blow when they allowed their relegation rivals to score three converted tries in the final five minutes.

Otley had been 20 points clear with 22 minutes remaining but five substitutions and the loss of replacement prop Jonathan McMillan due to a yellow card disrupted them too much.

The visitors started confidently, winger Alex Hurst crossing in the corner after five minutes but Otley settled to their task and the forwards began to take charge before full-back Christian Georgiou collected a clearing kick and ran at the Park defence before chipping through for winger Curtis Wilson to gather and dive over.

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Park scrum-half Chris Wilkinson cut through following a line-out and full-back Stephen Nutt converted but Otley scrum-half Stephen Depledge, prompting his backs with expertise, grabbed a brace of tries before the break.

Otley lost captain Jamie Sutton to the sin-bin on 37 minutes but an early second-half penalty from Georgiou extended the lead and when Park No 6 Richard Oxley was yellow-carded, Depledge claimed a third try, running in from a ruck on the 22. It was followed almost immediately by centre Ben Hough slicing open the defence to race in and Georgiou adding the conversion.

Otley looked safe as the clock wound down but they contrived to leak three tries to Park centre Richard Wainwright, full-back Matt Riley and Nutt, who also converted all three.

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