Burtonwood Bridge A.R.L.F.C.

The Bridge got off to a good start and spent the opening minutes constantly hammering away at the opposition's line. Mancunian's defense held solid and against the run of play their impressive winger (Blake Mahovic?) went the full length to touch down. Within minutes they had added a second try which was also duly converted. The Bridge were down but far from out and hit back straight away with Andy Mclorie scoring a superb try in the corner which the referee did not hesitate to award despite opposition claims of a dropped ball. Mclorie was unphased and kicked the goal himself. Some good handling from the Bridge saw the ball passed to Ryan 'lion-heart' Swift who stepped, spun, dodged, bamboozled and added a try to a great performance. They just don't come any braver than Swifty, he's good to watch, always gives 100% and he wears the shirt with pride.
However there was no stopping Mahovic and he hit the gas twice more to rack up his hat-trick and give the home side a 28 - 10 advantage at half time.
The second half started brightly with Bridge Man of the Match Graham Atkinson going over in style. Graham is another Bridge player who constantly steps up to the mark, gives it everything he's got and adds value every time he plays. Unfortunately for us the lad is off to join the army next month. I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing him all the very best. We look forward to seeing him whenever he has leave - don't forget to bring your boots Graham!! 'Stockers' aka Chris Stockly had a really good game, very impressive, he got voted in at number two. It was hard enough to separate the first two but agreeing on third spot was almost impossible with so many contenders. In the end it was awarded jointly to Dave Archer, who brings some great qualities and good decision making to the side, Swifty, for reasons mentioned above, and newcomer sixteen year old William 'the whirlpool' Weir, Whirly to his mates ;-) - a very good debut lad!
Andy Mclorie played well and was awarded a second try and the Bridge never gave up despite lads playing out of position (Well done Ben Hardiman for doing a good job as stand-in captain). A long list of casualties didn't help, ribs, ankle, split eyebrow, split chin, in fact we were so short we eventually had to let Bulldog Billy off the leash! (You know you wanted to Bill)
Well done Mancunians on doing the double against us and good luck in the play offs.
Finally a word of thanks to our new water-boy Lewis Mathias, he did a smashing job, (see the photos) I think we should make Lewis our official mascot.

Good effort lads.
Train Hard - Win Well.

Bridge A. Lewis King, Andy Mclorie, Matt Jones, Mike Hesketh, William Weir, Ben Hardiman, David Archer, Andy Coreless , Dan Oxley, Mike Fairhurst, Jimmy White, Ryan Swift, Graham Atkinson, Chris Stockly, Trevor Cuniff, Billy Rowan, Phil Bramley