YORK Acorn bounced back to winning ways with a gutsy 16-12 home win over Cottingham Tigers, which secured their National Conference League status.

One of Acorn's failings during their recent losing streak has been their inability to stop giving away soft early tries.

And once again they fell behind, this time a missed tackle seeing Tigers scrum-half Lee Craig race through a large gap to score an unconverted tenth-minute try.

To their credit Acorn responded in perfect fashion three minutes later when a Cottingham pass was scooped up by Paul Day, who sprinted 60 yards along the touchline to score. Full-back Kevin Brundrett added the extras.

Acorn were working hard in defence with centre Day, second-rower Dave Norman and loose- forward Lee Frank tackling well.

Both sides went close before Cottingham regained the lead after 25 minutes with an unconverted John Pritchard try.

Tension was mounting and on 35 minutes substitute forward Lee McTigue - back from York City Knights - and Tigers centre Alex Benson were sin-binned.

Acorn were reduced to 11 men minutes later when their hooker was yellow-carded for talking back to the referee after being given offside. From the resulting penalty Mark Cassidy kicked Tigers into a 10-6 interval lead.

Playing an extra man down meant the opening ten minutes of the second half were going to be vital to Acorn's chances and their defence held firm.

Tigers only managed to increase their lead with another Cassidy penalty as his side moved 12-6 in front.

Acorn's fightback began when Day finished off some enterprising attacking play to race over for a try to which Brundrett added the extras.

The scores were level and Acorn kept their discipline late in the game when they were rewarded with two late penalties, coolly kicked by Brundrett.

Any thoughts of a Tigers revival were stopped dead in their tracks by three thunderous tackles, two by Paul Dodsworth and one by Mick Hagan just before the end.

As well as guaranteeing second division rugby next season, the victory also puts Acorn in good spirits for next week's derby clash at home to Heworth.

National Conference League

Premier Division

P W D L F A Pts

Siddal 21 16 1 4 467 287 33

Leigh Miners 22 14 1 7 541 359 29

West Hull* 20 14 1 5 521 314 25

Skirlaugh 20 11 2 7 380 349 24

Lock Lane 21 12 0 9 392 368 24

Wigan St Patricks 21 9 1 11 396 348 19

West Bowling 19 9 1 9 381 341 19

Leigh East 19 9 1 9 354 370 19

Ideal Isberg 24 9 1 14 328 486 19

Thornhill 22 9 0 13 317 337 18

Oulton Raiders 18 8 0 10 264 396 16

Woolston 19 7 1 11 376 413 15

Oldham St Annes 17 6 0 11 265 329 12

East Leeds 21 4 0 17 258 543 8

*West Hull have had four points deducted

Division One

Thatto Heath 20 15 2 3 630 257 32

Wigan St Judes 21 14 2 5 443 299 30

Walney Central 20 15 0 5 327 258 30

Featherstone Lions 19 14 0 5 451 289 28

Dudley Hill 19 12 0 7 419 305 24

Hunslet Warriors 20 9 1 10 314 334 19

Hull Dockers 19 9 0 10 372 440 18

Askam 21 7 1 13 368 481 15

Shaw Cross Sharks 17 6 2 9 233 301 14

Crosfields 19 6 1 12 325 453 13

Eccles 20 5 1 14 285 338 11

Saddleworth 17 3 2 12 227 425 8

Waterhead 18 4 0 14 233 447 8

Redhill record expunged

Division Two

Milford Marlins 22 17 2 3 648 231 36

Heworth 21 16 0 5 440 317 32

Wath Brow Hornets 17 15 1 1 722 143 31

Castleford Panthers 22 13 1 8 464 340 27

Eastmoor Dragons 22 12 2 8 469 413 26

Widnes St Maries 23 11 0 12 525 472 22

Normanton Knights 20 9 0 11 492 446 18

Cottingham Tigers 17 8 0 9 257 262 16

Huddersfield Syng 19 7 2 10 384 444 16

York Acorn 22 8 0 14 354 554 16

Rochdale Mayfield 21 6 0 15 255 585 12

Sheffield Hills' H 21 5 0 16 320 543 10

Millom 21 3 0 18 222 802 6

NCL scores see left.

More amateur RL scores and reports tomorrow.

Updated: 11:20 Monday, March 17, 2003