Struggling Newbold aiming to claw way back to safety under floodlights
NEWBOLD continue their battle for survival tonight when they play under the floodlights at Bournville RFC.
With five Midlands Premier rounds remaining, Newbold are seven points adrift of safety but victory at the game hosted by Stourbridge RFC tonight could close the gap on third-bottom Longton to two points – ahead of their trip to Bridgnorth on Saturday.
“Everyone loves a Friday night game,” said Newbold player/coach Phil Reed. “With it being a rearranged game from two weeks ago, everyone suffers a bit with player availability so we put it to Bournville to move it to the Friday night and Stourbridge are hosting it.”
Two wins in their last three games has seen Newbold give their survival hopes a major boost and Reed said his side will fight to the end.
He said: “We’re punching above our weight in this league with some of the budgets other teams have. But we’ve showed we can compete and we will give it our all until the end of the season and what will be will be.”
NUNEATON go in search of a first win in four Midlands Premier games when they host Sandbach on Saturday.
The re-arranged game at Liberty Way comes off the back of defeats to Birmingham and Solihull, Peterborough Lions and a draw with Scunthorpe.
“Like most clubs we’re struggling a little bit with availability as it was supposed to be a free weekend,” said Thomas. “But we’re fortunate to have depth in our squad and we are welcoming back some lads too.”
Nuns’ most recent defeat, a 47-14 loss to league leaders Birmingham and Solihull, wasn’t all one-way traffic.
Thomas said: “We had a really good spell after half-time when they were down to 14 men. A couple of the tries we conceded we were really disappointed with and it’s a shame we’ve gifted them some soft tries.
“Sandbach is going to be another tough test for us but I have confidence the lads will get the right result.”
THE challenges keep coming thick and fast for Rugby Lions – with a trip to promotion-chasing Bromsgrove tomorrow.
Having been thrashed 54-10 at home by top-of-the-pile Burton last weekend, Lions go in search of a first Midlands 1 West win since October without a number of players.
Head coach Dave Addleton said: “It is a re-arranged game with Bromsgrove and because it was a free weekend, quite a few of our lads are unavailable.
“But that’s the nature of the beast, we’ve just got to get our heads down, work hard and try and build up some confidence in the lads.”
Bromsgrove are seven points behind the division’s top two sides, Burton and Dudley Kingswinford, having played a game more - making the clash with Lions a ‘must-win’ if they are to maintain a push for promotion.
“Bromsgrove are going to be a similar challenge to Burton,” added the Lions boss. “They’re strong all over and just keep coming at you. But we’ve got to back ourselves to go there and believe we can get the job done.”