Seconds well beaten but new boys give optimism for the future

SOUTHPORT seconds travelled to league leaders Thornton Cleveleys on a very wet boggy afternoon.

It was a totally different side that had played and won at home the weekend before, but with an experienced pack and a pacey back line the team were confident from the start that they could come away with something against a team with their tails up.

Unfortunately straight from the kick-off Southport knocked the ball on which put the home side on the front foot.

From the scrum they worked their way into the 22 and gained a penalty which they opted to go for a line out to exe- cute a move straight from the training paddock and crashed over.

From this point on Southport realised they were playing a very well drilled team manifested by a half time deficit of 30 odd points as Thornton Cleveleys clinically took advantage of the away team’s mistakes.

However they did finish the half with a penalty which Dave Atherton slotted from 30 metres out.

The call at half time was to up the aggression, but Thornton Cleveleys started strongly again and scored straight away. The Southport lads were determined to stop the rot and played a much better second half frustrating the home side, who could only get more points from break away attacks.

The game ended 52-3 to the home side.

However there were positives in the appearance and performances in adversity of new boys Tom Rowe showing great footballing skill, Haydn showing rugby league players can cut it in union and Darius Sangari making a storming run. Keep the faith lads! With pressure on places and no game next week the two weeks off will enable everyone to take stock and work on kick starting the season.

There is a long way to go but with a growing squad available in terms of numbers and quality there is no reason why the forthcoming fixtures can’t be taken by storm.