Injuries and illness didn’t help Newark’s cause as their dismal run of form continued with a damaging 14-8 defeat to lowly Spalding.
Bob Nashed’s men had lost captain Chris Tate, hooker Ian Tomlinson, and prop Devan Priestley to illness, giving Rob Dunning a rare chance as prop in the first team, while 44-year- old forward Duncan Dawson was on the bench.
Mark Byrom took Tate’s place at full-back and Will Britten started at centre.
Spalding led at the break after a try on 20 minutes in an eventful first-half where Richard Primett suffered a neck injury and Ed Collishaw was sin binned.
Danny Coen opened Newark’s scoring with a penalty just before the interval, and they went in front early in the second-half when Jonny Statham struck with a try after some good approach play to put the away side 8-7 in front.
But Spalding responded midway through the half by scoring a try from a move down the narrow side to regain the lead.
Newark had the better of the final 20 minutes, and had numerous chances to carve out openings, but failed to convert their chances, leaving them without a win in the league since mid-October.
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