End-of-season lows and highs

For the final league game of the season, Moor hosted St. Helens-based West Park at Green Lane on Saturday. Having lost by only a point in the reverse fixture between the sides back in October, Moor might have been hoping to go one better this time, especially as the visitors had lost their last two games and in so doing, dashed any hopes they might have had of winning the league. Unfortunately for Moor this was not to be, as they eventually went down to their heaviest league defeat of the season.

Signs were ominous from the start, as Moor failed to collect the kick-off, allowing a West Park player to run through, gather up the ball, draw a defender and then put his left-winger away to score an unconverted try, all within the first 20 seconds of the game! In spite of this, Moor came straight back, as the opposition were penalised following the restart, allowing fly-half Pat Chatterton to kick a penalty goal.

Moor followed this up by keeping West Park pinned back and eventually went into the lead with a try by left-winger Olly Reynolds, converted by Chatterton. This proved to be their last score of the match however, as the visitors slowly took control of the game and in so doing, forced Moor into conceding a number of penalties deep in their own half as they desperately defended their line, allowing West Park to retake the lead from penalty kicks.

To compound this, Moor also had a player sin-binned and the visitors took full advantage of the extra man to score a converted try, giving them a 21-10 lead at half-time.

Another penalty after the break increased the opposition’s lead, before Moor rallied and for a while had West Park on the back-foot, but solid defence by them and poor finishing by Moor, meant that the home side were unable to add to their tally. Eventually, the visitors broke out and all the effort for no return seemed to break Moor’s resolve, as in the last quarter of the game, West Park scored three more tries, two of which were converted. This was the second time in successive weeks that Moor had conceded 19 points without reply, only this time the points gap was already too great with not enough time to try and reduce the deficit. The final whistle, deep into injury time following the third try, brought a convincing 43-10 victory for West Park.

This defeat meant that Moor finished sixth in the inaugural ADM Lancashire Premier Division, a position they had occupied since Christmas and whilst some might have hoped that they would finish a bit higher, it is one that they should be satisfied with, especially as this has arguably been the most competitive league that the team has ever competed in.

There was something to celebrate however, as the club’s 2nd XV won their division by beating Altrincham Kersal in the penultimate league game of the season and then on Sunday, the Colts XV booked their place in the final of the Halbro NW Colts League Cup with a win in the semi-final against Kirkby Lonsdale.

DAVID TODD