Wirral move up the League after a home win against Leigh

This was going to be a vital match for both sides with 3 teams likely to be relegated at the end of the season and Wirral, came out on top to record back to back home victories. With Wirral not playing last week they had almost a full squad to select from with Tim Hodson returning after injury at No 8 with Ben Marsh not being available. The subs were Matt Brown, Paul Sherlock and Joe Murray.
The match was played in ideal conditions on the back pitch with Wirral having the wind and slope advantage in the first half.
Within 3 mins. Leigh took the lead with a penalty from 20m out by Knapman when Wirral did not roll away from a maul but Wirral quickly equalized through Danny Harvey from 30m on their first attack. 4 mins later Wirral took the lead when Dave Doneo made good yards before going to ground when Wirral were awarded a further penalty 19m out which Danny converted to give Wirral the lead 6-3.
Wirral were now looking to play an expanding game using their quicker backs but crash balls through the middle did not go to hand but then Wirral were awarded a further penalty on 35m out, which was advanced 10m for Leigh kicking the ball away, Danny again converted. 9-3
On 14 mins Leigh made progress into the Wirral 20m area through a good long kick to touch and from this possession the larger Leigh pack mauled their over the line to score by Barton but the conversion was missed. Wirral continued to press but there was no way through the resilient Leigh defence but again a further penalty was awarded to Wirral which Danny converted from 27m out close to the touchline 12-8. This was followed by Wirral’s best play of the game with a scrum 50m out and Wirral took the ball blind and did so on a number of occasions with captain Ali Child involved on a number of occasions, which eventually resulted in Ross Page running over from 10m out to score 10m from the post, unfortunately the conversion was missed. 17-8
Leigh advanced up the field with a series of strong bursts and a penalty to 10m from the Wirral line and on 32 mins after a series of thrusts, Leigh appeared to have scored a try close to the posts only for the referee to call them back for a forward pass, much to the annoyance to the Leigh players and spectators.
As half time approached an attack from 50m out saw winger Martin McNeil almost score in the corner but was held up by the Leigh defence and cut back inside and attempted to pas to a team mate only for a Leigh player to deliberately knock down the pass. Wirral were awarded a penalty kick when a penalty try was what they sought, however a Leigh player was sin binned and Danny had an easy conversion from 10m out to score his 5th penalty of the half. 20-8 However, there was still time for Leigh to mount another attack and were camped on the Wirral line but Leigh could not force their way over. A penalty was awarded to them 5m from the line but this was not taken properly and the referee blew up only for Knapman the Leigh No 10 to express his feelings, thus on the stroke of half time he was also sin binned. The half time whistle was then blown at 20-8.
Immediately after half time, a good break by Ali Childs and Ali Baker resulting in play again on the Wirral line, but this time Wirral were denied a try by Ali Childs for crossing. A further attack resulted in a poor pass which allowed Leigh to kick down field and gain a foothold in the Wirral 20m area and here Leigh kept the ball amongst their forwards which resulted in their prop scoring, 10m from touch but this was well converted by Wood. 20-15.
Wirral responded with good running play again going down the blindside, where the ball passed through a number of hands before Ross Page collected the ball a few metres from the line to go over for his second try of the game close to the posts and this was converted by Danny 27-15. This advantage of 12 points was never going to be enough with this Leigh side determined to get something out of the game. The game was almost put beyond Leigh’s reach with an interception by Tim Hodson but unfortunately he was called back for being off side. From this penalty to Leigh it allowed them to enjoy a substantial period of play contained in the Wirral 20m area. At this stage with 18mins to go Wirral made their substitutions with Danny leaving the field to be replaced by Joe Murray, which allowed Sam Broadbent to go to stand off and Ali Childs to fullback. Matt Brown came on for Steve Pendergast and Paul Sherlock for Chris Tyson.
With 13 mins remaining the mobile Leigh No 8 Crompton scored from 30m out after crashing through a number of would be tacklers to score 15m in from touch but the conversion was missed. At this stage at 27-20 all three results were possible and Leigh were looking to get back down into Wirral’s half. On 32mins Wirral had the chance to extend the lead but a penalty by Sam from 25m out and 15m in from touch hit the upright and bounced back into play, which Leigh were quicker to gain control. However with 3 mins to go a penalty from a similar area was converted by Sam Broadbent, much to the relief of the Wirral spectators. At this incident the 3rd Leigh player was sin binned. 30-20. Even at the resultant kick off a penalty was awarded to Wirral for talking back to the referee and at this stage Wirral knew they had won this game, which now improves their position to 8th in the league with Sandbach losing today.
Not a classic game but quite tense with many penalties and hold ups which did not allow for the game to truly open up, but the win greatly improves Wirral chances of staying in this league.
We have another home game next week against Broughton Park, where in the fixture earlier this season we gave a good account of ourselves and will be looking to improve our position in this competitive league.

Richard McNeil