PICTURES: Warrington held by Kirkby Lonsdale

TWO evenly-matched sides battled fiercely at Walton Lea Road but could not be separated and each had to settle for a draw.

As a result, Kirkby Lonsdale drop to second in the North One West League, while Warrington remain in fourth place.

“Games between these two sides are always close and this was no exception,” said coach Andy Roberts.

“It truly was a game of two halves and I think we should really have won with all that second half pressure.

“But all credit to the Kirkby defence. They are the only side this season to deny us a try.

“We go to Broughton Park next week and, hopefully, back to winning ways.”

Warrington started well and soon achieved dominance in the scrums through props Clem O’Rourke and Jon Ward.

It was a driving scrum which gave Tom Wood the space to put in a delicate kick to the corner and Warrington went patiently through the phases before forcing Kirkby into an error which was duly punished by a successful penalty kick from Darren Norman.

However, the visitors, with the strong wind at their backs, started to control things for the rest of the half.

After missing a long-range penalty they started to involve their backs and eventually got their first points on the board with a snappy try in the corner.

From the restart, Kirkby maintained relentless pressure, although Warrington had a rare foray into Kirkby territory when another excellent kick from Tom Wood saw winger Nathan Beasley put in the tackle of the match to force a set scrum.

Unfortunately, this proved to be just a brief interlude and play soon resumed in the Warrington half.

Kirkby eventually increased their lead when they were awarded a questionable line-out in the right-hand corner and took a quick throw-in.

The ball flashed across the backs and Warrington did not have the defenders to stop the inevitable try.

The conversion made the score 12-3 but Warrington reduced the lead to six points when Darren Norman kicked a second penalty on the stroke of half time.

Now that it was their turn to play with the wind behind them, Warrington completely dominated the second half, assisted by the educated boot of Tom Wood.

However, Kirkby’s defence was outstanding and the visitors continued to absorb surge after surge.

Warrington managed to cut the deficit with a well-struck penalty from Ben Hockenhull who had assumed the kicking duties, but they could not find a way to crack the Kirkby defence.

The visitors came back for a final assault but Warrington withstood two important five-yard scrummages before Wood relieved the pressure with a pin-point kick to the visitors’ corner.

Warrington stepped up a gear to try to force the winning try but in the end, they had to make do with a second Hockenhull penalty.

This tied the scores to allow both sides to share the honours as the final whistle went.