Rosslyn Park 43 Preston Grasshoppers 17 Rosslyn Park gained ample revenge for the defeat at Lightfoots Green earlier this season when Saturday's visitors won with a miraculous drop goal from halfway with the last kick of the match, writes Bernard Wiggins.

With both sides desperately needing the points from this match, neither side could contemplate defeat and it was comforting to the home support that Park took the lead in the fourth minute, Stuart Hibbert's long pass finding Torquil Mathewson for a great score in the corner.

Park were over again five minutes later, James Justice's penalty to the corner flag setting up the now so familiar pushover try, Chris Cano emerging from under a mountain of players as the scorer.

Looking dominant, Park sat back to admire their handiwork and that spelt trouble as midway through the half Rob Parkinson went in under the posts to close the gap to 10-7.

James Hendy added a penalty on the half hour mark, but Chris Glynn soon replied for Preston Grasshoppers. From the restart, Lee Gibson took a clean catch and the visitors were forced into killing the ball. Justice thwacked the ball to the five-yard line to allow the home pack to force the visitors back over their own line for Lysander Strong to score.

A scoreline of 18-10 at the break soon became 21-10 with Hendy's second penalty and after quarter of an hour Hendy intercepted on halfway and the ball was transferred down the line, No 8 Andy Walker finally putting Mathewson over in the corner for his second try.

Rosslyn Park, cruising at 26-10, then paid the penalty for taking another breather as Michael Lough went over in the corner, Glynn converting splendidly to pull Preston back into contention at 26-17. The defining moment of the game then occurred shortly after.

The visitors, encouraged by the try, put Park under the cosh and were soon five yards from the line and looking likely to score. However, the ball popped out from the side of the maul for ever-improving Rob Sedman to pick up and gallop to the 40-metre line. Park then lost possession, but won it back, and in the space of 20 seconds what look liked a try at one end became a try at the other, Mathewson in for his hat-trick.

Late tries from Justice and captain Graham Boardman put the gloss on what in the end was an emphatic victory, and it was no surprise when Gibson was voted Man of the Match, irrespective of Mathewson's hat-trick.

Dominant in the lineout on both home and opposition ball, effective in the tight and two incredible recoveries from restarts, this was an outstanding display from a Park side beginning to build up a head of steam in the final stage of the season.

Park: Justice, Allen, Singer, Maddock, Mathewson, Hibbert, Hendy/Young, Cano/Daw, Keenan/Kearns, Cure, Sedman, Gibson, Strong/Thirlwall, Boardman (c), Walker.