Bradford & Bingley 5 Westoe 22

Mark Wilson, Andy Powell and Andrew Lawson were the men on the scoresheet but it was a fantastic all round team performance. The result ended a run of five away games without a win and makes two wins on the bounce after last week's success against Billingham. The only disappointment was they failed to secure a bonus point.

Westoe were able to field an unchanged back line from last week and it showed as they took the game to their hosts from the word go. It took 12 minutes to open the scoring and it was Wilson with it, as he continued his great scoring streak of recent weeks. Matthew Mellish added the conversion and it was his boot that brought the next score, a penalty on 28 minutes.

And Westoe would go in at the break 15-0 up when big number eight Powell scored his second in two games.

Bradford responded with an unconverted try of their own as the replacement winger went over but it was only a brief repost and Westoe replied with the try of the game. The ball was moved quickly through the backs inside their half before Lawson broke away down the wing to score. Mellish added the conversion, which proved to be the last score of the game.

The JML sponsored side pressed for the fourth try that would have brought a bonus point and they thought they had done it right on full time. The forwards, who had been magnificent throughout, forced the Bradford defence backwards and eventually pushed their way over the line. They thought they had scored but the referee thought otherwise and blew for full-time.

Despite this it was a great result and allows the Shields side to pull away from the bottom of the table. But it wasn't just the result that will please the hierarchy from Wood Terrace.

The performance was much better than previous away trips and Chairman Dave Arundel was keen to stress the importance of the older hands. "We did have a little bit of belief from last week. Dave Haswell and James Clark have played for a while and they pull the lads together.
"Scott Powell had a really good game, he's another really experienced player who has upped his game a little bit and leads the rest of the players on." But the chairman left his main praise for Wilson.
"Mark Wilson had another very good game in the centres.
"His defence has been really good but he's been getting into good attacking positions and scoring some tries." It's made more pleasing by the fact that Wilson is a local lad who has come through the ranks. "He's started getting used to the pace of the game because he's come from third team, second team rugby even though he was always too good for second team. "But he's now got the belief he can play first team rugby and he now realises he can play first team rugby and he is enjoying it."