Wigton beaten by Broughton Park in vital relegation battle

The Manchester side had sunk into the bottom three in spectacular fashion after losing 11 games in a row, so it was a double blow for the Greens that they ended that miserable sequence against them.

It didn’t help Wigton’s cause that three of their young, talented backs had to miss out after being injured in Wednesday’s County Under-23s’ competition.

It was a game of very contrasting styles as Wigton with their large and powerful pack attempted to take charge up front and lay the platform whilst Park always looked to move the ball and utilize the wide expanses.

Ade Titiloye opened the scoring after 15 minutes after showing his pace to go clear from his own half and Jonny Thomas converted.

Thomas added a penalty on 25 minutes and then just past the half hour the Park backs broke on the left and a superb jinking run by man of the match Warren Duffy ended with him scoring.

A 15-0 half-time deficit for Wigton was made worse when Thomas pushed Park further ahead five minutes after the re-start with a penalty.

At this point Wigton began to dominate possession and put the home team under considerable pressure, but their dominance was only able to earn six points with two well-struck penalties by Gregg Smith.

Park responded well and when the ball went out wide again to Duffy another jinking run led to his second try of the afternoon.

At this point Wigton could have been forgiven for letting their heads drop but they fought back and camped back in the Park 22 for the remaining ten minutes.

After going close on a couple of occasions Wigton’s efforts were finally rewarded when their forwards eventually managed to break through the black and white defensive line and mauled their way over for a try by Mark Deans.