Malton and Norton's North Two East free-fall continued as they perished 45-20 at Horden.

Within 14 minutes Malton trailed 14-0, largely due to their own mistakes.

Wing Ian Cooke was inspired to get the visitgors back on track. Receiving the ball 40 metres out he cleverly side-stepped two defenders before chipping over the remaining defence and winning the race for the touchdown.

Cooke then converted the penalty to narrow the gap to just six points.

But Malton again proved their own biggest enemies. Wrong decisions led to two tries for Horden

Again Malton rallied and a determined run from his own half by Tom Stephenson was carried on by flanker David Cooke who crossed, brother Ian converting.

But a defensive lapse again let in the hosts, and though Malton's pack, which had actually played well, drove a maul upfield with Jon Newsome directing operations for fly-half Andy Newsome to be the touchdown, they could not recover the deficit.

The Malton pack worked manfully throughout this game with Liam Vaughan, David Cooke and Phil Ryan putting in good performances.

However, much work needs to be done in defence if they are to get back to winning ways against Driffield on Saturday.

Updated: 10:47 Monday, February 21, 2005