YORK Acorn edged home to a narrow 18-14 away at relegated Shaw Cross Sharks in National Conference League Division One, in a match that can only be described as one best forgotten.

Overall, Acorn just had the edge and in truth they should have made sure of the win well before the full-time whistle, especially as their Dewsbury-based hosts played a good portion of the second-half with only 12 players following the sending off of their experienced player-coach Paul March.

March had a spell in the sin bin late on in the first-half for a high shot before seeing red in the second period for the same offence.

But as is Acorn's way this campaign they made hard work of it and allowed Shaw Cross to stay in the contest, due mainly to their poor completion rate caused by a high error count allied to a match littered with penalties.

Acorn's errors started straight from the kick-off, when they allowed the ball to bounce into touch.

Fortunately, they weren't punished for that error and on 12 minutes their left-edge attack produced the game's opening points when stand-off Tim Elliott put in an attacking grubber kick and in-form winger Callum Worthington was on hand to touch down out wide to give Acorn the lead.

On the 20-minute mark, Acorn doubled their lead when their centre Jordan Potter crashed over for a well-deserved try that put the Blue and Golds further ahead.

They held this lead until the half-hour mark, when a missed tackle allowed Shaw's second rower Adam Masson to go through his opposite number and score yet another unconverted try.

Neither side had the necessary quality to take control of this game, but Acorn, with substitute forward Adam Endersby and Australian front rower Nathan Welsh running strongly, at least had some momentum going forward.

Early in the second-half Acorn opened up a 14-4 lead when loose forward Tom Hill crossed for a vital try on 48 minutes.

Shaw Cross, fighting to stay up, fought back on 65 minutes, when their acting half Matthew Tebb went over from close range for a try goaled by loose forward Ryan Chalkley, which brought the score to 14-10 still in Acorn's favour.

Acorn's main attacking weapon Potter created the game's decisive score on 71 minutes, when his powerful run and offload saw Worthington go in at the corner for his second try of the game that once again gave Acorn breathing space.

Shaw managed to get on the scoreboard again, albeit a little bit too late to alter both the outcome of this game and ultimately their relegation battle - when in the final minute of this contest, Tebb repeated the act of going over from close range.

In a game were impressive performers were hard to find in truth, Acorn can look at the hard work of acting half Harry Bromwich and an impressive solid debut on the wing by 16-year-old Josh Parker, who defended stoutly and showed glimpses of neat footwork to unsettle the Shaw defence at times.