Shropshire Star

Bridgnorth bag a hard-fought win

Bridgnorth notched their fifth victory of the season with a valuable win against Sandbach.

Published

The victory lifted the All-Blacks up a couple of places in the National League Three Midlands.

Bridgnorth, with regulars Gareth Bladen, Matt Farrington and Simon Fletcher back on duty, started strongly.

Bladen caught everyone out with a trademark tap and go to tap down under the posts. The easy conversion gave the hosts and early 7-0 advantage.

The Bridgnorth forwards seemed to have the upper hand, bringing out some serious defence from the visitors, but another penalty following an excellent forward surge was countered by Sandbach getting one at the other end.

Yet another penalty for the All-Blacks made the half-time score 13-3.

Bridgnorth made several changes to the forwards and it was the visitors' turn to dominate.

The All-Blacks actually lost their own put in at a set scrum when in a promising position, a very rare occurrence in the modern game, and the visitors scored a good try in the corner to cut the gap to five and increase the tension among the home side.

Referee Sarah Toll sent Calum Madden and his opposite number off for an early bath, but the long distance penalty fell short. In the final few seconds Bridgnorth secured victory with a penalty in front of the posts to wrap up a deserved 18-6 win.

nnnn

Oswestry are getting closer to that elusive win in South Lancs and Cheshire One after suffering a 25-16 loss at Widnes.

It was their 12th defeat in a row, but the Eagles could take heart from their performance against the Cheshire men who ran out emphatic 54-13 winners when the sides met earlier in the season.

Widnes had the better of the first half as they exploited mistakes from their visitors to run in three tries for a 17-0 lead.

Oswestry started to get the game together and their pressure paid off as a penalty from Ryan Sorrell reduced the arrears to 17-3 at the interval.

The second half started with the Eagles pushing the home team to their limits and gaining another penalty which Sorrell landed between the posts.

Widnes relieved the pressure with a penalty to go 20-6 up, but the Eagles continued to attack and added another penalty from Sorrell.

Widnes managed to cling on and stunned their visitors with an unconverted score to go 25-9 ahead.

But the last try was Oswestry's with Phil Drury touching down.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.