Second Half Surge Sees Wirral Home

From the team selected, Wirral had to make two late changes as JOE MURRAY and MARK WILLIAMS had to withdraw due to work commitments thus JOSH STEAD and ADAM SHELDON came into the side from the seconds, whose game was cancelled. From the team which played against Waterloo, the only change was RYAN STEAD returning to the first team with JAMES REEVE returning to the subs bench alongside CHRIS HUGHES and KEITH MAHON.
After the rain we have had in the North, the conditions were heavy but at least the game started in dry conditions under floodlights but the players were able to keep their footholds.
Wirral kicked off which HYMCA dropped giving Wirral the scrum put in on the 20m line and with the ball in their possession immediately put pressure on the home side and a number of attempts were made on the HYMCA line until the 3rd minute when on the blind side, PAUL LEWIS passed to CHRIS BURROWS who scored wide out from a couple of metres. The conversion was missed.
Within 3 minutes HYMCA were ahead when from possession on the left a swift passing movement gave the right winger, Stuart Morton an overlap where he touched down 15m from the posts, the try was converted by Simon Wilson. 7-5.
Wirral came back putting pressure on the HYMCA 20m area but despite a number of opportunities they were denied by some keen tackling with the home side relieved to kick their way out of this area. In the 19th minute, CHRIS SPEED was sin binned for an illegal tackle. Play was contained in midfield for the next 10 minutes and after the 10min penalty, KEITH MAHON came on in place of Chris.
At this stage Wirral had turned down a number of kickable penalties as they strove for tries and in a five minute period Wirral were deemed to be held up over the line twice and had a try disallowed. It is fair to say that the tackling from HYMCA was keen and eventually they worked their way from the line, unfortunately there was a clash of heads between 2 Wirral players which left SAM BROADBENT with a broken nose (later reset by young doctor Josh Stead). CHRIS SPEED came on to go into the centres. CHRIS HUGHES came on for STEVE PENDERGAST. In the minute before half time HYMCA were awarded a penalty 45 m out and this was quickly taken by centre, Adam Ryder who ran unopposed to score, the conversion was missed. 12-5 (39 mins). Half time came after 48 mins.
The second half commenced with Wirral playing with greater fluency gaining a penalty which was advanced 10m with the HYMCA Lewis Starbuck receiving a yellow card. Again Wirral were able to apply pressure and like the first half scored early in this half when after a number of thrusts, CRAIG HARVEY set up CHRIS SPEED with a crash ball and crossed over to score under the posts. It was converted by JAMES ANNETTS who will admit it was not his greatest conversion as it just managed to get over the cross bar from 10m out. 12-12 (47 mins). Yet again within 6 minutes HYMCA had retaken the lead with a well struck penalty from 45m –15-12 (53 mins). JAMES REEVE came on for CHRIS BURROWS.
Wirral then took control of this game with long kicks downfield or astute kicks to touch where they had won more than their fair share of opposition ball. A charge down in the 20 m area led to Wirral’s next try, which was difficult to see being in the far corner of the pitch but all we could see was after some pressure, KEITH MAHON went in from close range and Wirral were in the lead for the first time, 15-17 (67 mins). In the next 10 minutes with all their pressure Wirral made sure of the game with two further tries from CRAIG HARVEY who forced his way over with JAMES ANNETTS converting and then DAN HARVEY put in JAMES ANNETTS in the corner to give Wirral an unassailable lead with 8 minutes to go- 29-15.
However to their credit HYMCA did not give up and made progress up field and were pressuring the Wirral line when a quick ball out to centre, Gavin Stead saw him score from close in, with the try being converted to give HYMCA a well- deserved losing bonus point.
Wirral had the majority of the terrority and possession and on another day could have had this game sewn up before half time but credit to them, they stepped up their game in the second half and scored 4 tries. Wirral remain 2nd in the table and next week the visitors are league leaders, Sheffield Tigers but please note the kick off time of 2.00pm.