Northwich 26 Tyldesley 20

12:00pm Wednesday 14th November 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

THERE were few smiles in success for Northwich.

Head coach Paul Reid was rocked by Graham Robinson's early exit with a suspected broken leg as Blacks' injury crisis lurched from bad to critical.

He is one of seven first teamers in a crowded treatment room.

The hosts still had sufficient quality to topple Tyldesley, whose spirited resistance brought them to within one score of their conquerors by the final whistle.

Despite going behind to an early James Robinson penalty the Moss Farm men took control and hit back with tries from Chris James and Richard Dale.

Scott Hayes converted Dale's score.

With the first quarter gone an easy victory was on the cards for the home team but once more Northwich failed to turn pressure into points and a late first half sin bin for Heywood did not help.

Wing forward Pete Pattenden powered his way over the line and Hayes converted from under the sticks to stretch their lead at the start of the second half.

But a lapse in marking allowed Tyldesley captain Andrew Dickenson to score a soft try in reply.

The visitors' hopes of a recovery were dashed when scrum half Steve Taylor made a clever break to set up skipper Steve Campbell for a 70-yard sprint to the line.

Hayes completed kicking duty again and at 26-10 it should have been game over.

Rob Heath and Donny Phillips were brought off the bench to replace the injured Robinson and Richard Dale but Tyldesley refused to relent and late into the encounter a try, conversion and penalty from Alec Gibson gave the scoreline a more respectable gloss at 26-20.

---

Northwich: Cartman, Fred Taylor, James, Heywood, Simpson, Pattenden, Naylor, Robinson (Heath 50), Steve Taylor, Hayes, Dale (Phillips 55), Keegan, Gwynne, Bown, Campbell
This weekend: v Birkenhead Park (h)