2nds narrowly loose out to Sefton

Manchester 2nd XV entertained Sefton 2nd XV at Grove Park in the early autumn sunshine at Grove Park.
With both sides looking for their first win of the season this was always going to be a tight contest and it was Sefton who opened the scoring when Manchester infringed at the ruck in front of the post allowing the Sefton Fly Half to slot over the 3 points. Sefton pressured the Manchester white wash for most of the opening 20 minutes of the game but the stern Manchester defence managed to keep the visitors out. The home side’s defensive efforts were rewarded 25 minutes into the game when they managed to clear their lines. Full back Ant Walker managed to break the Sefton line and, out sprinting the Sefton Winger and Full Back, crossed the line under the post. The try was successfully converted by Fly Half Chris Lloyd to put the home side in the lead.
Sefton came back strong deciding to keep the ball in the forwards who were far more dominant at scrum and maul than the home side pack. Using this to their advantage the visitors caught and drove from a line out to add to their early penalty and go 10-7 up. Being out muscled in the scrum throughout the game Manchester failed to get any good set piece ball for the backs to play with and Sefton soon increased their score to go into the break 17-7.
The second half saw substitute Gareth Bridgeman come on at Full Back and Ant Walker move out onto the wing. Bridgeman made an instant impact running hard at the Sefton back line and evading tackles and it wasn’t long before the ball was passed out wide to Walker who went over for his second of the day to get within 3 points of Sefton. By now Manchester were in the ascendancy and despite the forwards still struggling at scrum time the backs continued to run the ball at will. It’s fair to say that Manchester should have made more of this but a number of chances were spurned with errors at the crucial time and chances were blown.
The home team were dealt a further blow when with 20 minutes to go prop Kiki Vatikiotis was knocked out cold just inches from the line after a clash of heads with back row Chris Gough. With nobody wanting to move concussed prop until the ambulance At this point both myself and Kiki would like to thank the Sefton player who looked after Kiki when he was out cold.

When the match restarted it was the visitors who were the less affected by the delay as they added to their score with help from some poor Manchester tackling.
The home side managed to get back into the game with scrum half James Stanion snipping at the Sefton defence and making valuable yards. This allowed Centre Mathew Richards to jink through the Sefton defence to add to the home sides tally. A converted try down and 10 minutes left on the clock Manchester continued to pressure the visitors. With time running out and Sefton constantly infringing Manchester decided to throw the kitchen sink at the visitors and run everything, but it was to no avail as the ball was turned over allowing the Sefton Srum Half to kick it dead signalling the end of the game. Final score Manchester 17 Sefton 24.

Squad: 1) Kiki Vatikiotis 2) Zee Khan, 3) Matt Wilde, 4) Ben Gordon, 5) Paul Farrington (c), 6) Dom Thomas, 7) Chris Gough, 8) Lucas Shelbourn, 9) James Stanion 10) Chris Lloyd (1C), 11) Josh Wilde, 12) Mathew Richards (1T), 13) Ben Jenkins, 14) Matt Barker, 15) Ant Walker (2T,).
Subs: 16) Gareth Bridgman (MoM)(for Wilde.J 40min) .