TITLE-CHASING Malton and Norton RUFC notched up win number 20 in Yorkshire One with a regulation 19-13 victory at Knottingley.

The leaders’ attacking flair was negated by a narrow Knottingley pitch, but the home side rarely threatened as they adopted forward-dominated tactics.

The Ryedale side held a comfortable lead until the closing minute, when the hosts scored a consolation try.

After kicking off, Malton were unable to get their hands on the ball for ten minutes, but Knottingley lacked the invention to create anything from their possession.

Once Malton did get some ball, they showed their power with a good score.

The pack drove forward and when they were halted a metre short of the line, centre Ryan Lonsdale picked up at the back of the ruck and burrowed his way over and Tom Collard converted.

Midway through the half, Malton doubled their advantage from a scrum on the Knottingley 22-metre line.

Scrum-half Collard broke to the blind side and drew his man before passing on to wing Tom Newitt, who stepped around the first defender and surged past the second to score.

Collard again converted.

The home side registered the next points with a penalty when Malton were caught offside at a scrum. Malt started brightly in the second half, with Lonsdale making a couple of telling breaks, but Knottingley added to their tally with a penalty for obstruction.

Malton struck again when another strong Lonsdale break set up position for fly-half Chris Creber to cross.

Knottingley were marched back an extra ten metres on several occasions for disputing refereeing decisions and four yellow cards were shown, two to each side. With the game in the fifth minute of injury time, Knottingley got their consolation try.

York were beaten 24-10 at Castleford, while Selby lost 32-15 to third-placed Heath at Sandhill Lane.