The Wolves will have been pleased to have won this game against the Cumbrians from Wigton and to have earned four precious league points but they had to pay a heavy price, when their talisman and leading points scorer Bob MacCallum had to leave the scene in the last moments with a fractured jaw. Full back Ollie McCall and winger Sam Cutts had both earlier hobbled off with recurring injuries. They should have been out of sight long before the home team mounted a late rally, which had given them just a whiff of hope that there may have still have been something left for them.

The Wolves had always been favourites for this one but there is an edginess about their play at present, possibly a lack of confidence, and consequently clear cut scoring opportunities were wasted from as early as the first move of the game, when Harry Patch, unmarked on the right wing, received a pass that just flew over his head. It didn’t help, of course, that up front the scrum was often wheeled, despite props Rob Taylor and Jordan Ayrey being at least the equal of their opponents, and had to rely once again on Alex Taylor to tidy up at No. 8. This will have contributed to the untidy snatched passing outside. Despite this, throughout the game, they always had the more opportunities if only they’d had the patience and discipline to take full advantage.

In the lineout though, it was clear that in Clifford, Hewitt and Taylor, the Wolves possessed most of the options, which they used to disrupt several Wigton calls in decent field position.

Wigton too were not without their problems. They were coming into this game off a heavy mauling at Vale of Lune the previous week and had won only one league game all season. The side which just two seasons ago had presided over a fifteen month unbeaten home run, until Wilmslow called late last autumn, has dissolved and the larder of available players is now close to empty. They admitted to being resigned to dropping down into the Cumbrian and North Lancs league at the end of the season.

Play swung from one end to another in the first quarter. The Wolves butchered a catch and drive opportunity and when the ball was released it foundered with haphazard passing in the backs. Wigton then took the lead from a penalty after twenty minutes from Ollie Bouch, when the Wolves were caught offside in their own twenty two.

Still the profligate Wolves couldn’t put anything together. Scrum half Barker saw a misguided pass intercepted in a promising position, the scrum couldn’t make anything of their put in at a five yard scrum, a MacCallum penalty attempt went awry, Sam Cutts just didn’t quite possess the gas to make the line when he was put away and the Wolves didn’t possess the composure to retain possession to finish off the move.

And then as half time approached, Clifford delivered quick lineout ball from the top of the lineout and eventually McCall, coming into the line from full back, slipped the tackle and ran in to score under the posts.

Early in the second half the Wolves were driving strongly from the lineout but when the ball was released, the passing was once again all over the place. MacCallum, however, had the presence of mind and necessary skill to put in a hasty cross kick, which landed kindly for Max Harvey, now on the left wing, to gather and go past the remaining defender for the second try. The Wolves were still mainly in the ascendency and ten minutes later MacCallum landed a penalty to put them 17-3 to the good. Two minutes later, they should have been clear but they couldn’t deliver a short inside pass to the unmarked MacCallum.

The last ten minutes belonged to the home side. They broke from their own half of the field and only a forward pass denied them a try under the posts. The Wolves were penned back and from a lineout, the home side moved it right and then back again for winger Ryan Clarke to score far out on the left. They were on the attack again and the Wolves were having to defend deeply, when MacCallum took the blow which ended his participation in a heavy tackle. Moments later though, Wigton knocked on and the referee blew for no side.