The crowd at Lowmoor Road were treated to an entertaining encounter in this derby match between the two old rivals, culminating in a deserved win for the home team. In the corresponding fixture at Bower Park, the key to Aspatria's win had been strong ball carrying by their forwards and they tried to repeat the treatment this time around. Unfortunately for them, they found Wigton's defence in unforgiving mood as they chopped down the Aspatria runners time after time.

Aspatria received the ball from kick off, but a sloppy knock on gifted Wigton early possession. From this, Wigton enjoyed several minutes of pressure in the Aspatria 22. However, the black red defence held firm and Aspatria cleared their lines courtesy of a huge clearance kick by winger Lee Tinnion under his own posts. The ball kept going until it found touch on Wigton's 5 metre line, one of the biggest clearance kicks seen at Lowmoor Road. However, from the resulting Wigton lineout, Aspatria gave the home team an easy way out by conceding a penalty.

This game was what might be euphemistically called "feisty" and there were one or two unedifying incidents which did not reflect well on anyone involved. Exchange referee Rory Fisher of Yorkshire found himself with quite a heated match on his hands and not everything that went on was detected by him. Wigton's centre Gregg Smith was shown a yellow card for what was, in effect, retaliation for a tip tackle unseen by the ref.

This enabled Aspatria to mount their first serious attack. Aspatria started to drive a lineout and second row Matthew Atkinson rolled off down the short side making good ground. The work was continued by other members of the pack, with prop Grahame Andrews making a good contribution. The ball came back to Atkinson who again bumped off the first tackle and galloped along the touch line. A try seemed to be beckoning, but the inside pass was dropped and knocked on.

Atkinson figured prominently again when he received the ball standing out from a lineout. He tried to work a clever move which saw his centre Tom Gardner galloping dangerously into the 22 behind the defence. However, the pass was forward and Wigton breathed again. Another kick by Tinnion penned Wigton back in their 22. At this stage the Wigton lineout was misfiring somewhat, with Aspatria sometimes latching onto the longer throws to launch big forwards into midfield.

Wigton were able to break clear when the ball was moved wide and full back Ryan Clark showed his pace to cut through. He linked with Gregg Smith in support, but he, surrounded by defenders covering back, lost the ball in the 22. However, Aspatria were not able to quite clear the ball and Wigton were awarded a penalty about thirty seven metres out. Winger Jonny Charters found a beautifully clean strike to send the ball between the sticks. Thus Wigton had their noses in front at 3-0.

From the restart No 8 Stuart Creighton made good ground and Wigton moved the ball smartly to the left. Winger Steven Harris was brought down within five metres of the line. As both sides rushed to win the vital possession, Atkinson was penalised at the ruck and shown the yellow card, departing to ironic cheers.

With the penalty only a few yards from touch and halftime approaching, Wigton tried to take advantage of the big second row's absence by taking a scrum. The Greens had the upper hand in the scrum most of the afternoon and they now tried to make their edge tell. Three times Wigton tried to push over the Aspatria pack and three times Aspatria were penalised with Wigton opting to rescrummage. On the fourth occasion, as the scrum again crabbed sideways, the referee marched under the posts to award a penalty try which Charters converted for a 10-0 lead as the half time whistle blew.

Neither side would have been totally happy or deeply dissatisfied at half time. It had been an absorbingly tight encounter and either side could have been ahead. Wigton would have felt that their lines could improve, but their defence and their scrummaging had been good. On the other hand, the visitors could feel that their basic approach was right, as they could point to opportunities created but not taken.

The next quarter of the game was pretty relentless as counter attack followed attack from both sides, with little chance to pause for breath. One or two features were starting to emerge. Firstly, for Aspatria the likes of Liam Ridley, Mark Beverley, Atkinson and Gary Hodgson were launching attack after attack into the Wigton midfield. The second feature was the excellence of the tackling, particularly from Wigton. Phil Dixon produced a couple of eye watering hits for Aspatria, but Wigton were halting runners in their tracks with low chop tackles. This gave the next defender a chance to get over the ball to effect a turnover. John Story, James Brough, Robert Marrs, Andy Brown and Richard Jackson were among those putting in heavy shifts in defence. Skipper David Hanabury punched above his weight in defence, as he always does, sometimes to the detriment of his anatomy, but the number of turnovers was starting to frustrate Aspatria's ambitions.

That said, the excellent Hodgson always seems to carry tacklers with him further than it is reasonable to expect and he caused Wigton most problems. Wigton rose to the occasion when tackling their ex captain Atkinson, with Harris making two important one on one tackles. Ridley had given Wigton all sorts of problems at Bower Park, but today the tacklers contained him more effectively. Beverley and Dixon ran with aggression and dynamism, but never really threatened to break tackles with any regularity.

Wigton had a promising attacking position as their backs started to look threatening, but Brown managed to pass the ball into the hands of Atkinson, probably forgetting which team he plays for now. Atkinson galloped down the middle of the park, being brought down by Harris. Next it was Wigton again who got their supporters excited when Smith produced a well timed inside ball to Clark who took play into the visitors' 22 again. However, Wigton lost their chance when they were held up in a maul. There were concerns for the home team when both Wigton's centres, Smith and Richard Moffatt had to leave the field, involving much reorganising of the back line. Smith had to leave only temporarily due to a nose bleed. Backs coach David Warwick was in attendance. When head coach Mark Lee shouted across, "Is he staying on?" the replay came, "Well I've told him to." Unfortunately Gregg's nose was gushing blood at a rate which Red Adair would have been hard pushed to staunch; it was certainly beyond help from Chubby's persuasive skills.

But to our story.........

Aspatria were awarded a penalty on the Wigton 22 dead in front of the posts. What followed next was arguably the defining moments of the game. At 10-0 down and twenty minutes to go, it would have been a formality for Jack Clegg to make it 10-3 and leave Wigton hanging on with a redesigned back division. Instead, he kicked for touch in the corner. This is one of those situations where if a try comes it was a great decision, but if it doesn't...............

Aspatria won the ball but the pass across the back line was wayward and hit the deck. Harris was first to gather it and run into the Aspatria half. He was tackled but the alert Hanabury picked up from the base of the ruck and scampered up the short side. He looked like he was due to score, but Aspatria's scrum half Jason Ward showed great determination to catch him before the line. However, Hanabury was able to pass inside to Clark in support, rounding off an excellent game for the full back. 15-0 looked like a winning score in the context of the match.

Aspatria then went through a period of looking very flustered as they tried desperately to manufacture a comeback. With their lead, Wigton could kick deep and challenge the visitors to score from unpromising positions. Charters had a chance to extend Wigton's lead, but his penalty, though well struck, just went wide.

Aspatria managed to find a final flourish. Tinnion got the ball in some space, before being hauled down by Charters. Ward took the ball and put in a crafty chip down the touch line to the in goal area, being just beaten to the ball by a defender. Fittingly, it was Hodgson, probably again, Aspatria's best player on the day, who finally scored just to frustrate Wigton's hopes of a clean sheet. He again made a powerful burst and linked up with Haycock in support. When the ball was recycled it came back to Hodgson who beat a final defender to score. Clegg was unable to convert so the score was now 15-5.

With time almost up, Wigton's restart went deep into the 22 and Aspatria were unable to make progress from the last play of the day.

The home supporters were, naturally delighted, and Wigton deserved their win. Aspatria remain a formidable team and it took a strong performance to beat them, but it now looks as though promotion will elude them this season. The Wigton squad and staff can be well pleased with many aspects of their play in producing such a memorable encounter.

Though there would be a M O M presentation from the sponsors, in truth this was a real squad (18) performance in every sense and they all probably deserved some steak. First and foremost for the courage, honesty and ambition to take on an Aspatria squad at full strength. The front five (six with young Wannop) were on top throughout in the scrummage and if the line out had been as impressive the margin of victory could have been more.

The back row as a unit functioned well and were responsible for a significant number of turnovers throughout the game as Aspatria's decision to play without a recognised open side was exposed. (AKA England). Behind the scrum the young back line coped well. In defence, inspired by the lead of Hanabury and Ledingham the others all stepped up to frustrate the Aspatria three quarters, indeed the most significant line breaks came from Wigton and the support play leading to Clark's try (an 80 metre counter attack) was sublime.

For Lead Coach Mark Lee this was a payback performance from the players with many aspects of the play an accurate reflection of the hard hours being put in on the training paddock .