MORPETH Harriers staged a great fightback to complete a hat-trick of wins in the North of England 12-Stage Road Relay Championships at Stockport.

Already without former AAA half marathon champion Ian Hudspith and Army international Craig McBurney, Morpeth got off to a poor start when Rob Holladay could only finish 24th, two minutes down on the leader.

Holladay, who anchored Morpeth to a last-ditch victory in the Elswick Relays on Good Friday, suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury and had to ease off dramatically as he realised his hopes of vying for Commonwealth Games selection in this Sunday's Flora London Marathon had been dashed.

Michael Morris made up 15 places on the second leg before late recruit Ben Harrison slipped back to 11th on the third circuit.

Newcomer Tom Ranger moved up into eighth, but the deficit was still a formidable 2 mins 26 secs.

Richard Kay lifted Morpeth into sixth position with a fine run then Terry Wall went into fourth place, cutting Salford's lead to 1 min 44 secs, and Neil Armsworth overtook another runner to hoist his team into a medal position.

Morpeth's star runner, Mark Hudspith, then produced the ninth fastest time of the afternoon on leg eight, but Tony Morgan-Lee produced the fourth best individual performance to keep Salford 1 min 50 secs in front.

In a tremendous finale Steve Platts cut Salford's lead to 1 min 26 secs, handing over in third place to Mark Brown, whose inspired run lifted Morpeth into second place and slashed Salford's lead to 12 seconds.

On the penultimate stage David Swinburne overtook Salford's John Cookson and established a 45 -second lead. And on the final circuit Chris Sampson ran the fastest 12th leg and extended the lead to exactly one minute to complete a superb team performance.

The North-East's next finishers were Sunderland in seventh place after slipping from fourth on the third leg, while Gateshead were 17th and Houghton and Peterlee were 42nd.

Results: 1 Morpeth (R Holladay (24)22,38, M Morris (9) 21.50, B Harrison (11) 22.59, T Ranger (8) 21.24, R Kay (6) 22.07, T Wall (4) 21.53, N Armsworth (3) 22.30, M Hudspith (3) 20.55, S Platts (3) 21.30, M Brown (2) 21.32, D Swinburne (1) 21.54, C Sampson (1) 21.55) 4 hours 23 mins 7 secs; 2 Salford 4:24:07; 3 Sale 4:25:45; 4 Bingley 4:30:44; 5 Leeds City 4:31:25; 7 Sunderland 4:34:25; 17 Gateshead 4:46:14; 41 Houghton and Peterlee 5:43:24.

Fastest legs: 1 J Wild (Sale) 20.11; 2 C Livesey (Preston) 20.37; 3 A Morgan-Lee (Salford) 20.38; 9 M Hudspith (Morpeth) 20.55