Aston obviously took note of Wales's performance against France on Friday night before their match against Wolverhampton. Unfortunately it wasn't the brilliant open field running and finshing of Shane Williams that was replicated, but the 2 interception tries that were conceded. These contrived to turn a winnable game into a loss, and effectively ended Astons promotion chances for the season.

Whilst there were several changes to last weeks team, with player Coach Allan Mitchell, Blake Bennett and Andy Wood all missing from the backs, and influential 2nd Row Paul Finnemore and Flanker Paul Horrocks absent from the forwards, Aston were still able to field a side with considerable 1st XV experience - with Flanker Chris Balmforth winning his 1st XV tie after his 15th appearance of the season.

Indeed all looked promising when skipper Chris Goldsmith opened the scoring after just 8 minutes, with an unconverted try. However Wolverhampton returned the compliment 5 minutes later when winger Tom Oliver intercepted a stray pass and ran in from distance. The easy conversion in front of the posts by Steve Treacy gave Wolverhampton a 7-5 lead.

Aston regained the advantage on 29 minutes when Fly Half Adam Kyle kicked a penalty, but Wolverhampton hit back almost immediately when sloppy passing presented the second interception try. The recipient of the gift this time was Fly Half Treacy, with Full Back Ben Barnes adding the extra points.

Aston continued to press and reduced the deficit to 14-11 with another Kyle penalty on the stroke of half time. 2 minutes into the 2nd half Kyle levelled the scores with his third succesful kick, and it appeared that Aston would recover from their self-inflicted position. However Wolverhampton continued to capitalise on Astons loose play and Treacy kicked a penalty on 44 minutes to regain the lead.

Aston continued to mix good play with poor options and imprecise execution but stil looked capable of scoring on several occasions. However, Wolverhampton stretched the lead to 6 points on 57 minutes with another Treacy penalty, leaving Aston the final quarter to score the converted try required for victory. Again, despite some excellent work in some areas, notably Rob Chesner, the score remained elusive and Wolverhampton ran out winners 20-14.

Afterwards, Coach Mitchell mirrored the thoughts of Wales's Warren Gatland, when he commented on his sides self destruct button, whilst also recognising that there were some encouraging performances intermingled with a lack of sharpness in other areas.

(More photos by John Walker available in the Photo section)