Aspatria Rugby Club's 36-21 victory over old rivals Wigton leaves them third in the North Lancs/Cumbria table with one game to play.

De La Salle have completed their fixtures and are promoted as champions but Aspatria still have a lifeline.

If they win the game in hand at Littleborough, they will overtake second-placed Bolton and gain a shot at promotion via the play-off game.

The largest crowd of the season at Bower Park created a carnival atmosphere but, out on the field of play, it remained deadly serious.

On the balance of play, Aspatria deserved their win as they were more clinical in the Wigton 22 and also seemed to get greater distance on their clearance kicks.

Several times Wigton had very promising positions but were not able to get the tries which would have made the difference.

Wigton opened the scoring when a high tackle on second row Mark Deans enabled full-back Ryan Clark to slot a penalty goal.

The next period of the game belonged to Aspatria as Wigton coughed up the ball and gave away penalties to bring pressure on themselves.

On seven minutes, prop Graham Andrews looked set to crash into the Wigton defence but delayed just long enough to pop a sublimely weighted pass to full-back Lee Tinnion who came on to the ball and seared through the defence and over the line. Ryan Scott converted.

After a penalty went to the corner Wigton expected the catch and drive, which is a party piece for Aspatria, but this time they opted for quick ball release to send second-row Matthew Atkinson charging infield.

Wigton did well to halt the big man but could do nothing when Andrews took over possession and dived low and over the line. Scott converted.

Aspatria were on top but, on 20 minutes, Liam Ridley was yellow carded following an altercation at a maul. The penalty that followed set-up a sustained period of attacking rugby from Wigton.

Deans, in his favourite midfield channel, attracted a number of defenders to produce a hint of an overlap. Right winger Josh Leeson did well to step inside the defence and take play almost to the try-line.

When Wigton moved the ball left, they had several men in the clear and No.8 Greg Wrathall took the final pass from Deans and ran behind the posts. Clark’s conversion put a different complexion on things at 14-10.

However, Wigton committed the cardinal sin of making a mess of the restart, knocking the ball on.

From the resulting scrum, No.8 Gary Hodgson made a powerful run and centre Heine Jonker was on hand to carry on the momentum. When the ball was moved wide, it was Wigton’s turn to be caught short handed and right-winger Andrew Miller was able to claim an unconverted try.

Wigton were at their best in the final ten minutes of the half. Aspatria helped the cause by giving away a succession of penalties.

Clark used two of these to peg the score back to 19-16 but this was a period during which Wigton should have made more of several try-scoring opportunities.

At half-time, however, the game remained finally balanced.

Three minutes into the second half, Miller found space on the right wing to beat the cover defence into the corner and earn Aspatria a try bonus point. The failure to score seemed to alter the mood in the Wigton camp.

Tackles were being missed and Aspatria took full advantage.

The hard-running of Aspatria’s Atkinson, Heine Jonker and Greg Dickinson opened gaps for support runners to go through.

On 57 minutes, Hodgson did not need a second invitation to take full advantage and go under the posts.

It looked all over for Wigton and it did not get any easier on 60 minutes when Clark was yellow carded for an illegal tackle.

But they hit back bravely when Aspatria were penalised and were able to set up a line about seven or eight yards out.

The forwards kept the ball close and tried to batter their way over the line.

Aspatria infringed and, with the referee playing advantage, the influential Dave Hanabury jinked his way over for a try to narrowing the gap to ten points.

However, there was to be no grandstand finish. Wigton infringed from the restart and the Black Reds had a line 15 out.

From the resulting play, proceedings were interrupted by a fracas involving Wigton prop Lindsay Walker with Miller, and yellow cards for both meant they took no further part in the game with less than ten minutes remaining.

They were followed a few minutes later by Greg Wrathall who had illegally stopped an Aspatria maul near the try line.

With two key forwards missing, Aspatria used the awarded penalty to turn the screw and called for a scrum.

There could only be one outcome and, with Wigton going backwards, back-row Dickinson picked up the ball and scored.