Park were made to work hard for their win, against a well drilled Wallsend side, who had led by a single point early in the second half. Both sets of players will know they were in a game, with crunching tackles and no quarter asked or given, but Park maintain their position of second in the league.
The game started in near ideal conditions, with no sign of the high winds which had spoiled in previous weeks. For the first 20 minutes, both sides defended as if their lives depended on it, although O'Sullivan had the first chance to put points on the board for Wallsend with a speculative penalty attempt.
Park played into Wallsend hands a little with frantic rugby, looking to force the pace rather than go through the phases, but on 25 minutes Rutter opened his account with a penalty after the visitors were offside in midfield. Rutter missed a difficult chance from long range, but bagged his second penalty on the stroke of half hour.
The home side pressure was beginning to tell on the Wallsend defence, who were trying the patience of referee John Ash with repeated infringements, and the visitors could count themselves lucky to go into the break wit 15 men still on the pitch.
In the second half, Wallsend were awarded a penalty inside their own half and kicked to touch for a line out on the Park 22. Former Park player Mal Donald, was on the money with his line out throw, and the Benfield Road side crashed the ball up into the Park defence with Donald again. The ball was spun through the hands, and full back Hamil hit the line and through a gap to score, with O'Sullivan converting to lead 6 - 7.
Park made 2 changes to the back line bringing on Griffiths at fly half and Greetham at centre, and almost immediately, Greetham burst through a gap in the otherwise watertight Wallsend defensive line only to be stopped short.
On the 53 minute mark Wallsend had to defend a series of scrums on their own 5 metre line. The Park pack had the visitors under pressure for most of the game, driving their 8 backwards, and from a scrappy scrummage, the ball popped out at the back and quick thinking scrum half Michael Conn pounced on the ball to claim the try and put Park back in the lead.
Wallsend were now under the cosh, needing only a try to win, but playing the game in their own half. Skipper Brett Sylph sealed the win for Park with a powerful run on full time driving through a ruck opn the 22 metre line, and taking several tacklers with him to score under the posts. Rutter kicked the conversion, and Percy Park breathed a collective sigh of relief at closing out a game that could have been a banana skin in the attempt at promotion.
On the back pitch Park Marauders were still waiting for their first win of the season, but lost in a close game to Rockcliff rangers 7 - 12. At Whitley Bay, Percy Park Pumas continued their winning ways with an emphatic 41 - 5 win against Rockliff II.