Kingstone Press National Conference League Division One: York Acorn 46 Shaw Cross Sharks 20

FREE-SCORING York Acorn moved into fourth place and a potential end-of-season play-off spot after beating Dewsbury-based Shaw Cross Sharks at home.

With five games to go, only seven points separate third-from-bottom Hunslet Warriors (in the highest relegation spot) and fourth-placed Acorn, with five sides sandwiched between them.

It was a curate's egg of a performance from Acorn, however, in which they produced moments of disciplined quality that left the Sharks floundering and a 15-minute second-half period in which they went away from their game-plan and allowed the visitors to notch three tries.

Acorn's first-half dominance was built around the direct attacking approach of their half-backs, stand-off and man of the match Lewis Lord and scrum half Lewis Brown continually getting them moving forward to great affect.

Brown's tactical kicking was another reason Acorn enjoyed periods of dominance.

While the two Lewises were dominant as far as organising things, in prop forward Adam Endersby Acorn had their very own metre eater, with excellent supporting roles being provided by fellow forwards Chris Hill and Elliott Bulmer.

In defence, Acorn were once again served excellently by second-rower Reece Rushworth, who just stops anyone silly enough to run anywhere near him, Lord and replacement hooker Nick Speck.

Acorn began strongly and moved into the lead on nine minutes, Bulmer crashing over from close range for a try that full back Matthew Chilton added the conversion to.

Acorn stretched their lead to 10-0 on 12 minutes when Lord miscued an up and under 20 metres from the Sharks try-line but then react quickest and regather the bouncing ball before sending Rushworth towards the line, who put centre Gareth Singleton over for a wonderful try.

Shaw Cross reduced Acorn's lead to 10-6 on 21 minutes when they managed to beat Acorn's left-edge defence to score a try through stand-off Callum Barker, which was improved by loose forward Casey Johnson.

Acorn's flying winger Jack Stewart then acrobatically finished off in the corner, after capitalising on free-flowing approach play by his team-mates in the final third.

And Acorn's 14-6 lead soon became 20-6 when, on the half-hour, Brown had the ball in the opposition's 20 and, with no obvious options, took the Sharks defence on by himself and proceeded to bounce and spin off several would-be tacklers before putting the ball down for a wonderful solo try which Chilton converted.

On the stroke of half-time, Acorn increased their advantage when the impressive Speck crashed over from acting-half for an unconverted try.

The second half also started well for Acorn when rapier-like passing along the left-edge attack gave Singleton the chance to take several would-be tacklers over the line with him for his second try of the game, Chilton's successful goal moving Acorn into a 30-6 lead.

Acorn then allowed their performance levels to dip and, in the 55th minute, the visitors took advantage to score a try through winger Nathan Wright.

Another magical moment came three minutes later when Shaw Cross put a kick close to the Acorn line and were left grasping thin air as Brown gathered the ball and weaved his way into space before racing 40 metres into the Sharks half before releasing try-scoring machine Ryan Gallacher.

He then raced on an angle from right to left before finishing his 50-metre dash with a try-scoring dive, Chilton's conversion making it 36-10.

Brown then produced a wonderful kick to the corner for Rushworth to touch down.

However, back-to-back Shaw Cross Shark tries on 64 minutes by full back Sam Otterwell – an excellent individual effort which was converted by Johnson – and 70 minutes by winger Brandon Warrior out wide gave the scoreline a real rugby league feel about it at 40-20.

Acorn finished off the game's scoring on 76 minutes though s when the impressive Rushworth stormed over from close range, with Chilton's conversion wrapping up a healthy 46-20 victory.