Port welcomed Congleton to Dunkirk Lane looking to bounce back after a surprise defeat at Capenhurst last week. The visitors kicked off with a slight wind in their favour and the first few minutes found Port under some pressure. Although Congleton had territory and posession early on they did not carry much threat with it and Port managed to defend well. as the game progressed towards the 10 minute mark Port began to find their match pace and began to dominate up front, a sustained period of pressure in the Congleton half first saw some good forwards play putting back row Jim Shinton in a scoring position only to be foiled by knocking on as he was tackled diving over the line, winger Rob Finlay's pace had the beating of his opposite number and threatened to score but for a last ditch tackle from the covering defence of the Congleton full back. The constant pressure eventually led to congleton conceding a penalty in a kickable position which fly half Chris Carbutt slotted for Port to take a deserved lead. On 17 minutes with Port continuing the pressure the forwards dominated a scrum 5 metres out, from the No 8 pick up strong running centre Lee Craddock took a switch ball and crashed through the Congleton defenders to touch down, with the conversion added by Carbutt Port were 10-0 up and looking as if they would build a comfortable winning score, Congleton had different ideas and responded with a period of pressure, in part assisted by Port making silly errors and giving away silly penalties. A particularly threatening move from Congleton was intercepted by Fly half Carbutt inside the Port 22, breaking out, with the Congleton cover defence drawn in and realising he didn't have the pace to go the distance he put a kick into centre field which the Congleton full back raced back to gather, he was immediately pounced upon by two port attackers inside his 22 and the resultant penalty for not relasing was a formality for Carbutt who bisected the uprights to give Port a 13-0 lead. Soon after with Port threatening the Congleton line again a deliberate knock on resulted in another penatly which Carbutt, reliably slotted to give Port a 16-0 lead with ten to go to the half.
The game turned in the last 3 minutes of the first half with Port in a good position to go on and build a score although not yet comfortably ahead the game changed. POrt seemed to hit the self destruct button, first a penalty for crossing was conceded just inside Port's half which Congleton kicked, this would have been minor on it's own but in the last minute Congleton put up a high ball which was landing just in goal, confusion between two Port players led to neither of them safely fielding the kick and a Congleton simply touched the ball down for a try, with the resultant conversion easily added to make it 16-10 the half time position was far less comfortable than it should have been.
The second half became a tight and nervy 40 minutes of rugby for Port, insted of getting back on track like the first 37 minutes the half started poorly with hooker Craig Jones being given a ten minute sin bin having been over exuberent with his arm in driving a Congleton player off a ruck. The half time position also gave Congleton renewed hope and they raised their game, coupled with Port conceding silly penalties and conceding territory from them Congleton continued to exert pressure on Port, with 20 to go the visitors were awarded a penalty which was converted to make it 16-13. A nervy Port side then managed to hold out and with ten to go had good position, inside the Congleton 22, a series of rucks, pick and go drives resulted in Port almost scoring what would have been a game wining try, however Congleton weathered the storm but Port Prop Kieran Molloy was injured, bravely he managed to play on until with less than 2 minutes to go he took another hard tackle and seriously injured his knee resulting in a lengthy stoppage whilst the emergency services arrived and treated him on the pitch. At the time Congleton had been awarded a 5m scrum, gven the position with the scores so close and only 90 seconds to go the referee decided he should play out the final seconds. After a lengthy stoppage, with a paramedic ambulance at the other end of the pitch the teams agreed to relocate the scrum to the opposite end and play out the final throes of the game. Congleton threw everything but the kitchen sink at Port who managed to hold out for a narrow victory. The Rees Developments Man of the Match award went to Centre Lee Craddock for his strong running and his excellent try.