GUTSY York Acorn ARLC put up a tremendous fight before going out of the GMB Union National Challenge Cup third round at Cumberland League leaders Hensingham.

They went down 7-0 after travelling with just 16 players as several of their more established first teamers were unavailable but their young replacements did the club proud.

The match was postponed last week because of a waterlogged pitch and Acorn's task was made even harder when in the first tackle of the match they lost second-row forward Davey Burns with a facial injury after being on the wrong end of a high shot.

Hensingham then nudged themselves into an early 2-0 lead with a penalty.

The hosts sensed a National Concerence scalp when they scored a contentious try out wide after Acorn felt the referee missed a blatant forward pass in the build-up.

For most of the first half, Acorn's young side were earning their spurs with a gritty display of character that saw them wrestle the initiative from the home side.

Under-18 players scrum-half Tim Elliott, winger Tom Mackley and loose-forward Tom Hill, who was man of the match, were in great form.

Acorn came agonisingly close to getting a deserved try when Jonny Waldron just failed to ground the ball in the corner.

It was important that Acorn made a good start to the second half, but their job was hindered by a double injury blow which saw them lose the services of Mackley and second-rower Lee Frank, both to knee injuries.

That was followed by the sin-binning of utility forward Andy Henson but even with 12 men Acorn took the game to the Cumbrians.

However, things got worse when a shoulder injury forced off substitute centre Chris Keld and, to rub salt into their wounds, captain and centre Michael Embleton had a deserved try ruled out by the referee for a double movement.

Frustrated Acorn then saw Hensingham fire over an important drop goal to give them a 7-0 lead and despite the efforts of centre Andy Lee and stand-off Andy Gargan, Acorn could not get on the scoresheet.

Updated: 11:00 Monday, January 30, 2006