The game against Park gave coach, Matt Cairns some concerns when it came to picking his squad in mid –week. After good reviews from the second team, second row, HAYDEN LONG came into the second row for his debut. KEITH MAHON came back in at No.8 with MARK WILLIAMS returning to the wing after injury. The substitutes were STEVE PENDERGAST, PAUL LEWIS and RYAN STEAD.
Wirral played against the slight breeze in the first half, playing towards the road. The first 10 minutes were even until a penalty gave Park a line out 5m from the Wirral line. A good catch by Park captain, Jack Ashcroft and dive over the line was the first score, duly converted by Simon Mason, 0-7 (12 minutes). 5 minutes later, Park extended their lead to 0-10 with as penalty from Dave Hall.
Gradually Wirral worked their way downfield and a period in the Park 20m area, a reset scrum gave Wirral clean ball and a pass inside left SAM BROADBENT with one man to beat and 10m run to score and was converted by JAMES ANNETTS. 7-10 (24 minutes). Wirral continued attacking but a dropped pass gave Park the initiative and a penalty from Simon Mason gave Park a line out 10m from the Wirral try line. Pressure exerted on Wirral and a crash ball from Mason to Ollie Whorton saw the centre crash over close to the posts and an easy conversion from Dave Hall. 7-17 (33 minutes). This was followed to a yellow card for the Park captain Jack Ashcroft (ex WGS). In the period before half-time (which lasted some 46 minutes), a break by DAN HARVEY onto MATT LOON took play deep into Park territory but could not go on to convert this pressure into points. In summary in respect of the first half, Park played to their strengths using their forwards and Wirral tried to match this rather using the width of the pitch.
Nothing changed in terms of tactics at the start of the second half and a penalty took play 10m from the Wirral line, another line out followed by a maul over the whitewash with the try awarded to Dave Ibbotson and converted by Dave Hall- 7-24 (45 minutes). PAUL LEWIS and RYAN STEAD came on for JAMES REEVE and HAYDEN LONG respectively. Wirral then looked to open up the game to stretch Park and after a period of time in the Park 20m area, good ball handling by several players resulting in a short pass by STUART GRATTON to DAN HARVEY saw him cross from 2m out in the corner, the conversion just missed. 5 minutes later, Wirral retained the ball to work their way up the field and resulted in SAM BROADBENT crossing for this second try which JAMES ANNETTS converted. 19-24 -56 minutes. At this stage there had been a number of injuries to players, mostly Park, which was all adding to injury time at the end of 40 minutes. Penalty to Park as STUART GRATTON received a yellow card for handling in the ruck, a further penalty gave DAVE HALL the chance to extend the lead to 19-27 (60 minutes). SAM BROADBENT came off with a hamstring injury, JAMES REEVE went back on and the backs were changed round with ROB PEARL reverting to the wing but at the next scrum, STEVE PENDERGAST came onto scrum and JAMES REEVE was sacrificed.
A promising move by the Park backs took play deep into the Wirral half but came to nothing following a knock on. Wirral were now putting pressure on Park and Jack Ashcroft took JOSH STEAD out off the ball, which was seen by the assistant referee who brought it to the attention of the referee. The offender thus incurred his second yellow card, which now equates to a red card. Penalties were being incurred all over the pitch, two such penalties took Park some 50m downfield which was a relief to them as they worked the clock down and tried to contain Wirral. Two further yellow cards, one against KEITH MAHON and a second for Park’s Dave Hall which equates to another red, left 14 against 13. To ease the situation as far as time is concerned, Park had a penalty opportunity from 40m but it went wide. When the clock reached 40 minutes there was still 9 minutes of injury time to play.
Wirral were now looking to control the ball in the search for a further score which would give them potentially a losing bonus point. RYAN STEAD made a break into the Park 20m area, the ball was recycled and went wide only for Wirral to drop the ball with the Park line at their mercy. There was less than 2 minutes remaining when Wirral again got their backs moving and MATT LOON scored wide out, to secure a try bonus point and a losing point. 24-27. Captain, CRAIG HARVEY took the decision to forgo the conversion attempt as further two points would not make difference to the 2 points we already had. The referee indicated that the kick off would be the last play of the game, collected safely by MATT DALTON and the ball released down the line as the home team urged on by the large crowd made progress downfield, careful to control the ball in the tackle and now in the Park 20m area where further passes saw ROB PEARL crash over the whitewash to put Wirral in the lead. JAMES ANNETTS then converted from wide out to leave the final score 31-27 and a result that no one could have foreseen 5 minutes from the end. The referee had added on all the time lost for injuries etc and this amounted to something in the region of 10 minutes. This is the second consecutive home match where Wirral have won with the last play of the game.
Wirral remain in 6th place, 5 points behind Harrogate and 5 in front of Rossendale. There is no match next week for the first team although the seconds are at home. For the first team the next match is away at Kendal on the 25th and if you wish to travel by coach see the main noticeboard for details.
Richard McNeil

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