Saints’ fourth away game of the season against South Manchester based Broughton Park was not the team’s best performance by a long way.
The game kicked off with light rain and a strong breeze with Saints into the wind. Early exchanges saw Saints pin back Broughton Park for the first 15 minutes, however the Broughton Park defence held and Saints were unable to cross the whitewash.
Broughton Park now had a period of attacking play, resulting in a penalty in front of the sticks 3-0.
Play resumed and after some poor kicking and missed tackles, Broughton Park scored and then converted a well-worked try.10-0. Broughton could sense an upset was on the cards and pressed again gaining another penalty which was converted leaving Saints 13-0 down with HT looming.
This spurred on the Saints pack and Rob O Donnell drove through a couple of tacklers to score just wide of the posts converted by Sadler to make the score a more respectable 13-7
Saints came out all guns blazing in the second half, with Ewan Nolan and then Liam Sandler both scoring within seven minutes of the restart; both converted by Ben Sandler 13-21.
This, however, spurred on the Broughton Park team who were looking the better team up until these teo scores and their pack drove two tries over, both converted to retake the lead.27-21.
With six minutes to go, Adam Bramall managed to find space down the left wing and cross the whitewash; unfortunately not converted 27-26.
With only a couple of minutes left on the clock, Saints pressed again but knocked on 5m out from the line. It looked all over but Rob Kosta and Danny managed to drive the Broughton Park scrum back earning a penalty under the sticks, converted by Sadler and retaking the lead 29-27.
The restart became a real tussle in the centre of the park before the man in the middle blew full-time.
It cannot always be pretty and it was a win that seemed unlikely at times but the 5-point win leaves Saints still top. albeit on points difference over Waterloo.
Image credit: Derek Salisbury Snr
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | +/- | TB | LB | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anselmians | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 231 | 80 | 151 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| 2 | Firwood Waterloo | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 238 | 114 | 124 | 6 | 0 | 30 |
| 3 | Rochdale | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 213 | 112 | 101 | 5 | 2 | 23 |
| 4 | Birkenhead Park | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 201 | 131 | 70 | 4 | 1 | 21 |
| 5 | Glossop | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 192 | 174 | 18 | 4 | 1 | 21 |
| 6 | Bowdon | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 180 | 154 | 26 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| 7 | Broughton Park | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 120 | 171 | -51 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 8 | Vale of Lune | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 131 | 196 | -65 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| 9 | Douglas (I.O.M.) | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 119 | 173 | -54 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 10 | Altrincham Kersal | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 112 | 174 | -62 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 11 | Wilmslow | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 104 | 212 | -108 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 12 | Winnington Park | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 114 | 264 | -150 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
Broughton Park
15 Angus MaColl
14 George Colebourne
13 Joshua Maddock
12 Thomas Hurst
11 Nikola Nikolov
10 Fraser Boldy
9 Jack Whelpton
1 James Henderson
2 Barry Kerr
3 Alexander James Lloyd
4 Stephen Edgar
5 Thomas Sneesby
6 Samuel Cairns
7 Joseph Noone
8 Patrick O’Donnell
Broughton Park Subs
S2 Bashir Mutyaba
S3 Alfred Sherwen
Anselmians
15 Adam Bramhall
14 Ewan Nolan
13 Liam Sadler
12 Ransford Otutaha
11 Thomas Banks
10 Benjamin Sadler
9 George Manger
1 Robert O’Donnell
2 Daniel Salisbury
3 Derek Salisbury
4 Niall Cavanagh
5 Jack Richards
6 Jack Sanders
7 Samuel Gregory
8 William Grabe
Anselmians Subs
S1 Fred Clark
S2 Kostja Vezanovs
S3 Thomas Gilbert
Why not follow birkenhead.news on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to news@birkenhead.news
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter