HARROGATE made it five wins out of six - and four in succession over Nottingham - with a competent 24-5 win at Beeston.

Last week's unlucky defeat by Plymouth was not allowed to get in the way of the need to get the promotion push back on track and although their rivals all won, the dream is still alive at Claro Road.

The fact is that Harrogate have to play all the top clubs except leaders Plymouth - Orrell twice - so their destiny is largely in their own hands.

They began slowly and Nottingham were the first to score when Stuart Bailey was driven over following a lineout. In fact it was 23 minutes before Harrogate put their first back move together, only to ruin the chance with a knock on, but three minutes later they were level.

Richard Melton charged down a clearance kick and fellow prop Scott Wilson got the touchdown. Ten minutes later Harrogate were ahead courtesy of referee Sean Davey whose constant whistle-blowing and some puzzling decisions hardly endeared him to either set of supporters.

With Harrogate pressing hard he pulled Nottingham up for taking down a maul - the first offence - and awarded a penalty try which Lee Cholewa converted.

Harrogate remained well on top into the second half and increased their lead after 52 minutes with the best try of the game. Centre Jamie Barker's surging break found Ed Smithies charging into the line and his well-timed pass allowed Paul Clayton to outstrip the cover.

Cholewa missed the conversion but made no mistake a minute from the end when after constant Harrogate pressure - with the forwards several times held up when over the line - the ball was spun wide for the impressive Barker to get the touchdown.

Updated: 11:58 Monday, January 21, 2002