Tough defeat at Northwich

Winning as many of their remaining home games, and picking-up as many bonus points on their travels, has to be the basic requirement for any successful fight to stay up.

Northwich responded positively to last week’s poor show at Wirral and had little difficulty in seeing-off a gallant but one-dimensional Wigton outfit.

Wigton pinned everything on their big set of forwards but they were 17-0 behind at half-time. Wing-forward Ryan McKibbin struck after three minutes, finishing off a decisive attack and stand-off Grant Hallam converted from wide out. Wigton held firm and it took half-an-hour before Hallam improved the score with a fine penalty.

Just before half-time number eight Rick Smith picked-up from the base of a scrum to set up skipper Sam Naylor for the second try which Hallam converted.

Soon after the restart centre Dan King tore through the Wigton team to score by the posts, setting up another easy conversion for Hallam.

On 50 minutes Wigton registered their first score through a Dan Read penalty but a few minutes later full- back Joel Barber scored the try of the match as he raced from deep in his own half to score by the posts. Hallam converted.

When centre Chris Dale scored on the hour to make it 36-3 the game was well and truly over for Wigton. But the Cumbrians kept going and were rewarded on 70 minutes with a Ryan Clarke consolation try which Reed converted.