ASHTON on Mersey fell to a heartbreaking last minute defeat in their hard-fought encounter with Crewe and Nantwich on Saturday.
Crewe had drawn their last game 0-0 and a stalemate was again on the cards in this bruising encounter.
Ashton had the edge in the lineout and turnovers in the first session and there was some good passing and movement from the three-quarters but the team could still not get out of their own half.
Most of the offensive moves came from Crewe and though Ashton defended well they were pressured by the visitors into conceding two penalties and three points.
The second half told the same story - Ashton could not get out of their own half but defended magnificently and could not develop the excellent defensive kicking of full back Richard Bibby and number 10 Mike Mills.
However, the visitors got a lucky break when centres Ian Teasdale and Chris Watts in turn hacked a loose ball goalwards and Mike Waddington touched down his own follow up hack to give Ashton a shaky lead.
In the last 10 minutes Crewe piled on the pressure and moved the ball from one wing to the other, getting close to the Ashton line on several occasions with only the final flawed ball stopping them from scoring.
With one minute left Ashton went a man down and conceded a penalty.This time Crewe did not spurn their chance and won the game.