The 14:23 Liverpool to Manchester was slightly late

Any thoughts of a fast flowing entertaining game were soon dashed early doors when the man in the middle threw the book at both teams for near enough 70 minutes.
Players remarked towards the end of the game that we hadn’t even managed to get up to a third phase in play but that was hardly the fault of the players of either side.

The weather wasn’t kind either. After a glorious Saturday it turned wet cold and breezy, may be we should of felt at home given the Valleys renowned micro systems but we could nearly put Widnes on a par with Fleetwood .... actually when I look back maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as that.

Anyway Dale started the brightest with a tremendous forward push down the field that just kept going and going and things looked up for the team. A succession of penalties for us kept us in the hunt and shame we couldn’t put points on the board during our “time in favour”

However it was Widnes who struck first second and third when during their period of “penalty fest” the fly half popped over three attempts to take a nine nil lead.

The Chemics made good use of the strong breeze to keep us camped up in our 22 for a period of play and it was some outstanding defence from our lads that prevented any tries being scored which included some last ditch on the line attempts. Loud applause for that boys it was excellent. Defence wins games.

At the turn around we were bolstered by Danny R the wild bull of the west lancs moors making a welcome return from his early Colts retirement and he started to turn the Widnes attack on themselves and having to defend for their lives and boy did he take some stopping at times.

It was however an up and under into the now easing breeze by the fly half JakE Mann which was fumbled by the home full back under pressure from the chase. Jake collected the ball after his wonderful follow through, his dad says he does that regular when he’s had a few, and Jake sprinted for the line to outpace the defenders coming back for a good personal try which he added the extras to.

The game felt as if we had turned it around at this time but from the kick off we fumbled and left ourselves under a great deal of pressure. The ball went swiftly down our left flank and Widnes were in.

Unfortunately for us the same thing was repeated shortly after and all of a sudden we were 21 –7 down. Our heads seemed to go down and we didn’t look like we had the fight left in us.

Turn it around boys and we did. We showed a great deal of spirit and did just that. A big push up to the Widnes line hampered , hindered or helped by our friend resulted in Cory going over the line and as he twisted and turned over in the tackle the ball was placed down over the line , however he was adjudged to have been held up and the try wasn’t given. Whilst the benefit of the video ref wasn’t available the Widnes lads congratulated him on the score and commiserated him at the same time on the decision going against us all in one go.

Wellsy from another quick taken penalty was hard done to not have a penalty try awarded when he was illegally prevented from a quick tap and go which was a dead certain try. The Widnesian player suffered a binning for his infringement.

Then it was Danny R, the wild bull of the west lancs moors who took the lead and drove the ball over through a tiring defence on about the 30th awarded penalty near the line and the score was given with Peely adding the two.

Now push as we did little errors crept in and Widnes carried on with their tenacious tackling and time was running out. It was 21-14 with about 5 minutes left and there didn’t look much on. Widnes had the kick to clear but Bridgey read the play perfectly and charged the kick down. The bounce went right for him and the ball steamed its way towards the posts, a gentle tap onwards to take it over the line and a cool head to slow himself down with oncoming defenders rushing up, he collected the ball and put downward pressure on it and the day was as good as saved.

The resulting celebrations showed what is meant and rightly so for the way we stuck at our guns. Peely kept a cool head himself to pop over the two and the draw was on.

Or not nearly so as in the dying embers Widnes were awarded a further penalty in a kickable position but fortunately and fittingly the ball went wide. A draw was a fair result and both sides can take credit out of the way they conducted themselves through trying circumstances.

Credits for the game go to Bridgey, Mason and Jake as well as our ever reliable standby player Hully.

Big pat on the back for Kieron Parker who is ever improving and also to Jack Brennan who after a short period of readjusting to a new position took the game by the horns and had a good un.

I was chuffed because i got a few more engine numbers to add to my little book though ive been on to Richard Branson to let him know my dismay at the 14:23 Liverpool to Manchester was slightly late.

Well done lads for the effort.

Im told that we have now a home game arranged for this sunday v Ormskirk under 18’s so if we can think about being available for that I would appreciate it.