Depleted Wids lose to avenging rivals
WIDNES ............................. 7 ALDWINIANS ................. 32
WIDNES tasted defeat for the second week in a row as they went down to a well-drilled Aldwinians side in the ADM Premier League.
The defeat leaves Widnes hanging on to second place in the table, thanks in the main to third placed West Park being out of action, and fourth place Liverpool St Helens who suffered a surprise hiccup at home in their game with Fleetwood.
Although the Wids were heavily depleted thanks to any number of injuries, nobody can take anything away from the performance of the Manchester outfit, who turned in a terrific display in securing revenge for a heavy home defeat back in early December.
The weather for the game was mainly overcast with just a hint of sunshine whilst the temperature remained on the chilly side throughout. The pitch though was in excellent condition as kick off time approached.
The visitors began the game brightly and soon hit Widnes where it hurt as a well-drilled lineout move paid dividends for Andrew Ormrod to score an early try which was converted by stand-off Sam Farrell.
Quick hands almost got elusive wing man Jack Krause in at the corner, but by this time, the Wids had already lost a couple of players to injury, and whilst they were still reorganising themselves, stand-off Farrell booted over another penalty to make it 10-0.
The further loss of prop forward Matt Blakey didn’t help, and their opportunities to re-establish themselves late in the half wasn’t helped when they had a player sent to the sin-bin.
Trailing 10-0 at the break, Widnes really did need to score next, but instead, the trusty boot of Farrell soon extended the visitors lead further.
On 55 minutes, the task became even harder as James Summerscales crashed over for a try.
Barely a minute later, wing man James Henderson raced over for yet another score which made the game safe for the visitors.
The away team then lost a player into the sin-bin, which led to the only bit of cheer for the Wids faithful, as an inside pass saw Tom Spencer cross for what was no more than a consolation effort wide out, which was goaled by Andy Owens.
The visitors though would have the final word, as outstanding number eight picked up at the base of a scrum for a walk-in try which was converted by the trusty boot of Sam Farrell to round things off.
Head coach Andy McIntosh said afterwards: “Some good experience today for the lads stepping up into first team rugby. We are doing it tough at the moment, but we get a week off to regroup and help fix some injuries up.
“No complaints about today. Aldwinians deserved their win - we found ourselves second best to a well drilled team today and never really got any foothold in the game. Nevertheless, we move onwards with heads up to the next match”.
● In other senior action, the Seconds comfortably beat Liverpool Collegiate 41 – 19 to narrowly stay top in Combination 1, whilst the Thirds were awarded a walkover against Winnington Park in Division Four West of the Halbro Leagues. ● Given the current injury situation, it is perhaps a good thing that the First team are without a fixture this coming weekend. They will, however, make a return to action on 16th April with a trip to Eccles in a re-arranged fixture.
In between, the physio is likely to be the busiest person at the Club over the coming days in order to treat the ever-growing list of injured players.