Manchester 10 Northwich 51

MANCHESTER will be made up they don’t have to play Northwich again for a while.

Blacks’ tally of points against them this season had reached 110 by full-time, enough to send Martin Poste’s men to the table’s summit as reward for an 11th successive win.

West Park, with two games in hand, are five points adrift.

Not that they will want to rearrange their visit to Moss Farm for any time soon with their title rivals in such scintillating form.

James Underhill’s penalty set them on course for victory at Grove Park on Saturday.

A first try followed quickly, when prop Joe Maddocks charged to the line on the blind-side after the visitors secured possession from an attacking lineout.
They added to their advantage after quarter of an hour, when Chris Dale’s pass invited scrum-half Matt Poste to touch down.

Manchester mustered a response, but a period of pressure was interrupted when Joel Barber made the most of Poste’s assist to notch a third try.

A bonus point was secure before the break when, after Andy Outram had been held up and the ball recycled, Poste’s neat pass served an unstoppable Sam Naylor.

Underhill’s conversion added gloss for the visitors.

Manchester put points on the board first after the interval, crossing from close range after a sustained spell of possession.

Northwich were forced to defend afterwards, a spell they needed 20 minutes to break when James went over following a quickly-taken tap penalty.

Their hosts’ resistance weakened, Blacks’ next attack ended with Barber ending a move in which Richard Dale’s burst forward was decisive.

Underhill kicked the extras.

A fine solo effort by Manchester’s number eight, who held off an attempt by several tacklers to stop him, followed.
But Northwich were not done.

James Reilly, Richard Dale and Barber combined to set up winger Robin Houghton, who neatly side-stepped the remaining defender to add his name to the list of scorers.

Underhill was on target again, as he was after Outram had ventured inside from the flank to notch Northwich’s eighth try in added time.

Northwich Grabski, James, Maddocks, Farley, Bradshaw, Naylor, Heywood, Chris Dale, Poste, Underhill, Reilly, Richard Dale, Outram, Houghton, Barber Replacements Cartman, Vaughan, Harrison Tries Barber (2), Maddocks, Poste, Naylor, James, Houghton, Outram Cons Underhill (4) Pen Underhill