For the visit to West Park (WP) there were again changes to the team, with Richard Lloyd-Jones coming in for Phil Donaldson (work commitments), Dave Doneo to back row as Harry Broadbent has an enforced one weeks absence with Chris Tyson coming into the second row. The bench replacements were all front row players although 2 of them are capable of playing in the back row.
Wirral had the advantage of a slight breeze and after a bout of kicking in the first minutes of the game saw WP looking to move the ball out wide whilst in their 22, pressure from Wirral saw the ball spilled and a loose ball over the try line was dived on by Ben Marsh to open the scoring, with Danny Harvey converting. 0-7 (3 mins).
We then saw pressure from WP and were awarded 2 kickable penalties one of which they converted 3-7 (5mins). Wirral were finding in this game that they had the opportunity to bring their backs into the game more than in the previous league games this season.
The next try came from concentrated pressure in the WP 22 with blind side breaks by Ali Childs being thwarted metres from the line and from one of these situations the forwards were picking up and gaining some ground, the forwards then pushed Tim Hodson over the line to score with the try being converted. 3-14 (13mins).
5 mins later, WP were again penalized, this time under their posts and Danny duly converted. 3-17. This was developing into an open game with a number of handling errors and the referee looking to play advantage where possible. WP were looking to make the breakthrough by using their bigger forwards and centres to crash through the middle but the Wirral defence continued to hold out and from their mistakes they were able to counter attack. The last score of the first half came after 27 mins when a further penalty by Danny extended the lead to 3-20 and this was the score at half time.
In the first half of the second period, WP came more into the game as they used their forwards more and spurned kickable penalty opportunities in the hope of scoring tries to reduce the deficit but Wirral were able to hold out until the 49th min when the WP forwards mauled their way over to score 15m in from touch but the conversion was missed. 8-20 (49 mins). Continued pressure was seen from WP and in one instance a WP forward was over the line only for Dave Doneo to lift and push back over the line where a maul developed and the referee awarding Wirral the put in as the team going forward.
Thereafter Wirral came back into the game and began to attack WP, with good inter passing between forwards and backs and a penalty to Wirral in the WP 22 was missed.
On 22 mins came the first substitution, with Sam Edgar coming in for Danny, Sam going to back row with Ben Marsh going into the centre and Ollie Atkinson switching to full back. 5 mins later came the last of the Wirral substitutions with Steve Pendergast and Chris Hughes being replaced by Jack Quinn and Matt Brown. The props had done a great job against their heavier opponents.
The game was opening up and Wirral were pressing for their third try to make the game safe but were missing scoring opportunities by not taking the right options or the final pass not going to hand. However this was all put right in the final 10 mins as Wirral scored 3 tries.
The third try came from a scrum some 40 m out with Ben Marsh running at the WP centres and having committed them gave a pass behind his back for Stu Hughes to collect on his inside to scoot over from 15m out to score under the posts. 8-27 (71 mins). Jack Quinn who had been only on the pitch for a few minutes was sin binned under the Wirral posts for an offence by referee Mike Callan.
On 78 mins saw atry which started on our own line with an interception by Tim Hodson who made some 50m before passing onto supporting players but Tim continued to follow the move and was on hand to take the scoring pass from Ali Baker to score 10 m from the touch line. The conversion was missed 8-32. This was an important try as it earned Wirral a bonus point for the fourth try.
In the last minutes of the game, all the pressure was coming from Wirral and another break saw Richard Lloyd-Jones running down the line and just clipping the touchline as he looked to pass inside. With continued pressure on the WP line saw a series of thrusts for the line and in the last play of the game near the WP posts saw a slick pass by Ali Childs to Sam Edgar, who dived over from 5m with Sam converting to give a final score of 8-39.
The Wirral team will have gained much confidence from this win as they brought their backs more into the game when compared with the league matches in the two previous weeks.
As a result of this win it consolidates their place in the league in 5th place and have a home match next week against another new team to this league, Wigton. Kick Off 3.00pm

Richard McNeil