LONGTON were punished for a slow start and a sloppy finish as they slipped to an agonising 27-26 defeat at Hereford in National League Three Midlands.

The visitors were without six players, but still made life hard for themselves as some sluggish play helped Hereford drive over for an opening try which was converted.

Scott Rawlings levelled for Longton as he ran over for a try before sending over the conversion himself.

The visitors then took the lead on 14 minutes when Rich Thompson soared up in the lineout and the forwards drove the ball over the line for hooker Craig Wilson to claim the try.

Seven minutes later, Longton scored an almost identical try through flanker Kieran Healey. Rawlings converted to give the visitors a 19-7 lead.

But the home side hit back with a try after a long kick was allowed to bounce a few metres from the line. The conversion was followed by a penalty in first-half injury time to cut Longton's lead to 19-17.

However, Longton hit back through their forwards 12 minutes into the second half as powerful flanker John Tavakece stormed over from short range.

Rawlings converted to put them 26-17 in front, but Longton still looked vulnerable.

A try and a magnificent conversion brought the scores back to 26-24, before a tense game finally swung Hereford's way through a 35-metre penalty six minutes from time.

Longton threw everything into attack as time ran down, but fluffed their chances.

They'll be hoping to bounce back tomorrow when they visit Lichfield for a Staffordshire Cup semi-final (7.45pm).

The winners will meet Burton, who won at home to STOKE at the weekend in a match which counted as both a semi-final and a Midlands One West fixture.

Steve Talbot's penalty was Stoke's only score of the first half as they trailed 22-3 at the break.

An Aaron Horne try was converted by Talbot to give Stoke hope early in the second half and then Simon Price's try was converted by Talbot in the closing stages, but Stoke eventually lost 32-17.

Sam Christmas's cracker inspired table-topping ECCLESHALL to a 24-8 win at St Leonard's in Midlands Four West (North).

Christmas had already converted Harvey Howell's try to give the visitors a 7-0 lead.

But centre Christmas then excelled himself with a moment of brilliance as he chipped over the St Leonard's back line, gathered his own kick one handed and ran in from 25 yards to score under the posts before converting his own try.

Visiting winger Dan Bigun beat two defenders on his way to the line as Eccleshall led 21-0 at the break.

St Leonard's fought back, but couldn't threaten the lead, despite a try from former Eccleshall player Jeremy Carr.

UTTOXETER claimed their highest score of the season as they walloped Castle Donington 72-6 in Midlands Four East (North).

James Gill (2), James Williams (2), Peter Allen, Timothy Carr, Ben Gallimore, Christopher Owen, Michael Davies, Oliver Nance, Tom Lampitt and Lee Bloor all scored tries.

TRENTHAM produced one of their poorest performances of the season to crash 26-13 at Wallasey in South Lancs/Cheshire Division Two.

Trentham's team bus arrived late and the afternoon got little better as Wallasey took a 12-0 half-time lead before ending Trentham's four-game winning run.

LINLEY and KIDSGROVE had a better afternoon in South Lancs/Cheshire Division Three as they won 33-13 at Ellesmere Port.

Scrum-half Jake Green was the obvious man of the match with four tries and four conversions.