Hard fought victory for Wigton

Wigton returned from Trafford MV with a hard fought and well earned 32-27 bonus point victory.

Wigton played with a strong wind behind them during the first half and early pressure gave them a kick able penalty inside the Trafford half, Gregg Smith took advantage of the wind to give Wigton a 3-0 nil lead inside the first minute. Trafford rallied and a simple penalty in front of the posts levelled the game at 3-3 on 9 minutes. Trafford struggled to get out of their half and good possession gave Gregg Smith an opportunity to score a try in the corner, the conversion was missed but Wigton led 10-8. Trafford pushed forward and missed tackles enabled the home team to score a converted try giving the hosts a slender lead of 10-8 after 16 minutes.

A Smith penalty on 22 minutes gave Wigton an 11-10 advantage and following the first scrum of the game on 24 minutes Smith was on hand again to score his second try which he converted and Wigton held a half time lead of 18-10. Trafford were now looking to take advantage of the wind but it was the Wigton forwards delivering the ball from the scrum allowing the backs good ball resulting in Gregg Smith scoring his 3rd try which he duly converted and Wigton held what appeared to be a comfortable 25-10 leads on 49 minutes with all of Wigtons points having been scored by Smith.

Trafford had other ideas and following a period of sustained pressure Mark Deans was shown a yellow card for not retreating 10 metres. Trafford seized their opportunity and within the space of 5 minutes the home team scored 2 converted tries to reduce the arrears to 25-24 with 14 minutes still to play. A yellow card shown to a Trafford player for dissent gave Wigton some respite and with Deans back on the pitch Wigton were back at full strength.

A Trafford fumble on the half way line enabled Aron Henderson to kick through, a further kick knocked the ball over the line and Henderson managed to touch the ball down to give Wigton a 4th try converted by Smith to extend Wigtons lead to 32-24 with only 3 minutes plus a large amount of injury time left to play. Trafford were now having their best spell of the game and although Wigton were defending heroically, Trafford were given a penalty in front of the posts to bring them within 5 points.

The last few minutes seemed like an eternity for the Wigton players and supporters as the Trafford forwards were now battering the Wigton defence within touching distance of the whitewash. Despite conceding two penalties within 10 metres of the line the solid green line of Wigton defenders put in some tremendous tackles and somehow managed to prevent Trafford from scoring until an error enabled Smith to boot the ball out of play and Wigton had triumphed 32-27.

Gregg Smith having scored 25 points and making 2 try stopping tackles was justifiably the Wigton man of the match.