The Broomfield men owed their win to a superb display by the forwards, particularly in the set pieces, and fly half Gareth Ott, who had arguably his best game in the club's colours. His assured kicking and running options had Pontefract on the back foot on many occasions.

Pontefract were well led up front by former Premiership player Derek Eves at No 8 and their backs looked sharp on the break, particularly in the first half when Crocs errors gave them possession to counter attack.

A penalty stopped Crocs' early progress and a further offside allowed Hibbert to put Pontefract 3 – 0 in front.

A Chris Seymour drop levelled matters but Pontefract capitalised on an error after 15 minutes, good passing and excellent back row support allowing Eves to crash over wide out. The conversion and then a number of kickable penalties were missed by Hibbert.

On 20 minutes Pontefract pressed but the alert Ott intercepted and Dan Bancroft was in support to race away to score under the posts for a converted try to put the home men 10-8 up.

A good Seymour kick eased pressure but Crocs were starting to cut out the basic errors and the forwards and Ott began to take control.

Stuart Hill drove and only a wrong option in the centres stopped a try. But on 35 minutes Hill scored from a pushover, only for Crocs to be deemed offside in front of their posts for Hibbert to make it 15-11 at the break.

Another penalty reduced the lead to one point but Seymour, Oliver and Ott all took the ball deep into the opposition territory and the dominant forwards kept the pressure on.

Richard Wheale and excellent props Andy Day and Richard Thomas took one against the head and good phases going forward allowed Ott to step inside his marker and ghost under the posts for a converted try to make it 22 – 14.

Crocs' kicking continued to push them forward and Luke Smith and Ott relieved the odd bouts of pressure well.

The home scrum was dominant and with Hill off injured, Terry Michael went to No 8 and scored a pushover try on 70 minutes converted by replacement Joel Hinchliffe.

The final points went to Hinchliffe, who kicked a penalty on 77 minutes.

Mark Thomas was sin binned but by this time the game was won. Resolute defence kept Pontefract out with Eves held on his back over the line.