vs New Brighton

Rossendale took the trip to the Wirral knowing they had a mountain to climb, New Brighton having beaten both Altrincham Kersal and Rochdale at Reeds Lane this season, but given their slim promotion chances knew that nothing less than victory would keep their prospects alive.

The visitors started brightly, retaining possesion in the face of stern defence for the opening encounters and pressed the home side into their own 22 from the start. A penalty was soon awarded as New Brighton found themselves killing the ball in an attempt to slow Dale down. Up stepped Stirrup and the visitors were off the mark, 0 - 3.

From the restart Dale really stamped their authority on the game, setting a safe platform and attacking therefrom again forcing "the Blues" onto the backfoot. Following much recycling by the visitors and a cheeky sniping dash from Stirrup, Bramhall pushed the ball out to the left and found Richard Horrocks among the waiting receivers to touch down through the outnumbered defence. 0 - 8

New Brighton realised the visitors were close to running away with this game and raised their game, led by captain and no8 Kati they fought their way back into the game with some excellent forward rugby and only Dales valiant defence kept the home backline at bay. But Dale were found guilty of interfering at the ruck and New Brighton gladly took the penalty as MacKenzie headed for the sin bin. 3 - 8

But Dale stretched the lead back to 8pts soon after with a long range effort from Stirrup. 3 - 11

As you would expect from a senior side New Brighton were far from beaten and following a "box kick" Dales' back 3 conspired to bemuse themselves as the swirling wind provided a troublesome bounce. Brighton pounced on the loose ball to score. 8 - 11

HT 8 - 11

Dale began the 2nd period much the same vein as the 1st, applying pressure close to the breakdown and forcing the home back row to defend, keeping them close to the ruck and out of their obviously more accustomed midfield positions. Once again Dale took the reward for the home teams' trangressions with another penalty, into the wind from Stirrup. 8 - 14

Game to the last though "the Blues" attacked at every opportunity and contested everything, to little gain as once again they were caught interfering on the floor. 8 - 17

As the players tired the contact area became a war zone, 1st Collins leaving the field for attention to a head wound as the home centre lay in the middle of the field. As soon as he was ready to rejoin the fray Dale lost Stirrup following a similar clash of competing heads. Captain Bramhall moved in the scrum half berth and drove the visiting pack forward through the final 5mins to finish victorious.

Quote MJB

" Dominance at the scrum and lineout paved the way for some intelligent open play, but in the end it was the desire of the team that proved too much for New Brighton. The failure of Altrincham to secure a win against Sandbach has thrown the race for the playoff slot wide open again, and although there are problems with our facilities we will pursue promotion to the end - Bitter or otherwise...."

Pitch news, work is currently underway to repair the paddyfields at Marl Pits, and the club is looking into relocation of the senior pitch to another area of the facility to allow us to complete our league programme without ceding home advantage.... ;-)