ASHTON BEARS 12 v CULCHETH EAGLES 13

Eagles maintained their unbeaten league run, as they ground out a victory in this scrappy encounter against Ashton Bears, with the result hanging in the balance until the final whistle.
It looked like the visitors had got the scoring underway, but Chris Pleavin was deemed to be offside at the kick, it was the home side that took the lead courtesy of a flat pass from Culcheth which was intercepted and easily grounded. The visitors hit back after a crashing effort from Wilde and a conversion from Danny Griffiths equalised the scores going into half time.
As is becoming their habit, Eagles flew out the blocks at the restart, Danny Griffiths was unlucky as he knocked on over the line 2 minutes in, in the ensuing arm wrestle it was the visitors that came out on top as Dom Rainford crossed with extras added by Dean Standish. Eagles defence absorbed challenge after challenge whilst missing out on two possible scores of their own as the whistle continued to blow for various misdemeanours, as the minutes ticked away James Wilde took the opportunity and slotted over a cheeky drop goal giving Eagles a seven point lead with 4 minutes on the clock. The home side regained from the kick off and were rewarded with a converted try. Instructions from the touchline were to drill the ball down field and play out the remaining minutes, again a error saw the ball go out on the full, penalty to the bears from the centre, Ashton opted to kick for goal......... Eagles heaved a sigh of relief as it fell short.....
Ashton hadn’t been able to capitalize on the field position gifted to them from numerous back to back penalties, this was down to a solid defence. However, this does not give Eagles the opportunities to play a structured attacking game, when able to do this Eagles young team have the potential to take this league, but need to learn to accept the referees decisions no matter how bizarre they may seem.
Man of the Match this week went again to James Wilde followed by Stu Pirrie and Chris Pleavin and this weeks prestigious POW is jointly awarded to Alex Green & Danny Griffiths.