A great effort but didnt quite make it

After another long absence from the playing field the Rossendale Colts faced a massive uphill task when they travelled over to the as yet unbeaten league leaders West park, St Helens.

A cold biting wind greeted the lads but the mood remained buoyant and there was no suggestion that the lads would be fodder to the lads from nearby Donkey common.

The game started and to be honest after about 10 minutes I wanted it to end. We had shoved them off the ball in the scrums and the rucks and completely taken the game to Park. The icing on the cake came through a strong and well taken drive over by Jasper that capped a great game for him.

Reet that was it wasn’t it. We won.

At this point I was fully expecting Park to have had the wake up call but our lads stuck to their guns and continued to dominate. Even Park’s speedy backs where cut to the ground with excellent tackling from the number 1 inside centre Cloughy .. there’s only one Cloughy … and Billy Whizz capping an awesome “come back” game with his own version of a tacklethon and some sweetly distributed ball out to the wings to give Will Nowell a chance to show us his best, and how strong he took the ball in to the opposition to keep the momentum going forward.

Peely made some incisive runs from the full back slot and certainly gave Park something to think about whilst Jack Brennand also took the ball in well when it came out to his wing.

So, can we blow now ref.

Unfortunately Park did start to recover some, yet never showed anything more than we were giving them. The greens from Red Rocks however took their chances when it mattered and put some points on the board with a couple of tries and a conversion.

Perhaps we were a bit unlucky in that we hadn’t been handed the new rule book which allows the indication for a penalty kick to be then run and from subsequent pressure a try be scored.

With their tales up and after the half time chat Park started the more dominant and a few early mistakes put the pressure back on Dale.

The lads manned up again though and some great pressure nearly paid with a superb line out with the Raging Bull Rylance rampaging through the middle only to be held up by some great defence.

With more chances going begging JakE Mann took a good option and slotted a well taken drop kick over for three points and the score was close at 12-8

Bridgey who was having a fine game in the main had his shout denied , after yet again some immense forward work he took the ball over the line from the back of a ruck only to be cruelly denied the score for something or other the ref decided unsighted .

Had the try been given things I feel would of turned out differently and the impetus would of been with us. Alas not to be and with two of our big forwards Danny and Leo having to come off we lost a lot of fire power and Park ended up with the sting and we ended up with it in our tail.

A great run from Bridgey late in the game saw him out strip several defenders with a pace that nobody knew he had, even him. Then he fell over his own boot lace knackered. If somebody had been on his shoulder though the ball would have been off loaded and another chance created. A lesson for the future chaps.

A further penalty kick ( by the sub) and a converted try were scored by Park and the game ended up 22-8. A ridiculous amount of awarded penalties that both sets of players and supporters felt aggrieved with finished the game in rather sour circumstances, as up to that point it had been a very enjoyable spectacle.

Our forwards to a man where exceptional and the backs did a fine job. To say we were so rusty after a lack of games and training time on the pitches I think you chaps take a lot of plaudits for the efforts of yesterday. Yes there was some fine tuning to be done but without games you don’t get chance to do that. So a big rap on the back for the squad we took over there yesterday.

Training is on Wednesday at Marl Pits 8pm – 9pm on the 3 g pitches. We play Warrington on Sunday away so make a date for that.

thanks for the support on the day and to the players for your efforts and commitment