MALTON & Norton RUFC enjoyed a second successive derby success to rise to sixth place in North One East.

After completing an historic league double over York the previous week, Malton defeated Pocklington 33-24 to the delight of a buoyant home crowd - despite having four men sin-binned to Pock's two during the 80 minutes.

Malt now go into Saturday's Yorkshire Cup first-round tie with Doncaster Phoenix in good heart. Pocklington, fifth-bottom in the table, have the weekend off, knowing they will need to resume action the following Saturday in better fettle to get clear of a relegation scrap.

The Gannock crowd were quietened early on as Pocklington ripped into the hosts for 15 minutes, but the visitors then imploded and Malt took over, securing victory before Pock finished with a late burst to notch a bonus point.

Malton's defence held firm under the early pressure until a scrum on 15 minutes was adjudged to have been brought down deliberately by the returning veteran prop Ed Gwilliam, who was sin-binned with a penalty awarded.

Before that, Pock wing Tom Richardson had gone close in the left corner, Christian Pollock missed a straightforward penalty and front-rows Chris Morton and Jim Thornton were held on the line.

Malton, though, upped their game and, driving down to the Pock line, a penalty was quickly tapped and moved to Rob Featherstone, who made 10 hard metres, with the recycled ball seeing John Vasconcelos plunge over for a try converted by Paul Angus.

With Gwilliam back on, the hosts took the game into the Pocklington half and maintained that position for some time, aided by a series of penalties and the sin-binning of Pock flanker Nathan Smith.

The home backs constantly probed and an opening eventually came on 38 minutes - Angus darting through it, touching down and converting for a 14-7 interval lead.

Pocklington lost their fly-half due to a leg injury and Malton took advantage, scoring a fine try five minutes into the second period. Slick handling between Shane Poole and Nick Daley resulted in a strong break by Tom Foan who fed Will Hughes, who crossed close to the posts for Angus to convert.

Four minutes later, Featherstone crashed over to make it 26-7, the home side being far more clinical than their visitors.

Tempers started to fray and, after a few warnings, the referee lost patience and sin-binned Malt's Charlie Read and the Pock number nine.

Meanwhile on 60 minutes, after another Pock handling error near half-way, Malton heeled the scrum and more good offloading out of the tackle brought them another converted try to be out of sight at 33-7 - Rob Armitage finding space and bustling to the whitewash.

Lock forward Jamie Rounthwaite came off the bench to make a welcome return to Malton action after several weeks' injury absence.

But as soon as the sides returned to 15 apiece, Malton were again reduced to 14 after a show of petulance by John Vasconcelos earned him a yellow card.

Pocklington duly took over for the final 10 minutes or so and showed their capabilities in notching two good tries through Joe Holbrough from a quick tap and replacement half-back Ben Rees, blasting over from a scrum - neither converted - to cut the deficit to 33-17.

They were now in the hunt for a try bonus point, or even a miraculous late comeback, and were given a further leg-up when Malt had yet another player sin-binned, this time skipper Sam Triffit for dissent after being deemed offside at a ruck.

Facing only 13 men, Pock opted for a scrum and drove Malton back to their line, with the referee awarding another penalty try when the scrum was collapsed.

With Pock pressing again, the final whistle could not come soon enough for Malton.