Another major defeat at the hands of a well organised and skillfull Blackburn side leaves the blacks in no doubt as the enormity of the task that lies ahead. Once again it was availability that continues to plague Northwich with a further four player added to the growing list of absentees. However there was much to be admired in the youngsters who stepped up and fill the faithful travellers with pride.

The first half started and for 30 minutes the blacks could not get hands on the ball, and when they did they were unable to make any real impression on the Blackburn side buoyed by the large home support. They were able to run in six converted tries scored at regular intervals leaving the blacks shell-shocked. With Northwich 42 points to the deficit they began to launch an attack giving them a glimmer of hope. With halftime approaching the reward came when the hard working Josh Warburton went on a charge to score a well deserved try in the corner. The extras were missed and the half drew to a close with some pride restored.

Most people expected the home side to steamroller the blacks, but that was not to be the case. They did score four further tries three of which were converted. Nevertheless, this did not tell the whole story. Northwich battled tirelessly in an effort to get something from the match. The visitors enjoyed far more possession and territory but were unable to breach the home defense. Injuries to Wilson and Naylor did not help the cause as this left the blacks exposed to the counter attack. These are clearly difficult times for Northwich but there was a sense of pride and optimism within the visitors on the terrace. Pride in the players who are digging deep to represent the blacks and Optimism in the knowledge there is much more to come when the depth in our playing recourses is restored

Next week Northwich take a break retuning the following week at home against Lymm KO 3pm

1 Tom Wilson 2 Mike Gough 3 Mark Thompson 4 Rory Williams 5 Josh Warburton 6 Aaron Collins 7 Tom Clark 8 Chris Heywood 9 Harry Naylor 10 Tom Wood11 Oliver Kenny12 Hayden Skinkis13 Tom Merrick14 Kyle Clarke15 Tom Husbands16 Mike Clarke17 Richard Hart 18 Fraser Dodd