Bolton Mets 10 - 30 Bury

Not the best performance but a win's a win. We got the better of the opening exchanges but a few bad decisions meant we failed to finish some great opportunities. Bolton made a good game of it but I thought our defence never really looked like cracking, and eventually we got our act together going forward. Always happy to win one of our local derbies, and the dominos pizzas after the game were a bonus!

Widnes Tigers 18 Burtonwood Bridge(NWML 3) 16

We had a good result yesterday in a 'friendly' against bridge who are going well near the top end of div 3, and fielding 2 ex BARLA GB Internationals along with ex Warrington half back Nick Owen. They flew 10-0 up, but we managed to steal it with 5 to go after completely dominating the 2nd half. Plenty more to come from us if we can keep this level of commitment going!

Wigan Bulldogs 38-26 Ashton Bears A.
The better team won on the day but I think if you asked both sides would they want to play the game again without the ref there'd be lots of takers! A very scrappy affair & some truly bewildering decisions which at times left both sets of players scratching their heads & went a long way to preventing what was potentially a good game. Hopefully we'll have a couple back for next weeks game which looks like another tough one at home to Fitton Hill.

Come on Cronus lets hear how clean and fair the Fitton thugs were today!? Widnes Tigers 66- Lachford 22. Made hard work of it in the first half then stepped up a gear and ran away with it against a young Lachford team.

Haha unfortunately I wasn't well so didn't make the trip, gutted I missed the Fitton Riviera. Can't imagine they were anything other than their usual charming selves.

Our lads are fuming at having lost again though. Seems the game followed exactly the same pattern: conceded soft points early on, battled back to take the lead only to get sucked into a stupid battle in the middle, and then concede a length of the field break with minutes to go after a poor decision in defence.

Not good enough and we'll be taking a hard look at a few things this week.

Hindley A dropping out could be a result for us. Wigan, Orrell, Little Hulton and Ashton have already picked up 2 points from them and Widnes have 4, whereas we've not had them as a fixture yet.

If their results are expunged or everyone is handed the points for their remaining fixtures we'll go back to 3rd, 1 point behind Orrell. There would be games in hand around us but they've still to be won.

Looking forward to the 2nd half of the season. Wigan at our place this Saturday.

Bury 18-20 Wigan Bulldogs

I suppose a great game for a neutral and the winners but frustrating as hell for us. That said, our first 30 was outstanding. Even Wigan would probably admit we blew them off the park, bullied them and dominated completely. Yet they showed their quality in defence by only being 10-0 before we gave away 3 penalties on the bounce to concede. We then scored again to make it 14-6 at halftime.

After half time we fell apart. Even after such a great 1st half team performance some lads think they can win games on their own and it just doesn't happen. Penalties, errors and sh*t decisions meant we had very little possession and completed only 30% in the 2nd half. And we knew the scoot is a big part of their game but some lads kept turning their backs or switching off at marker. Wigan just kept ploughing away and got back into it, eventually showing outstanding hands to take the lead and hold on. Got to say they showed great form to take this win, it was ours all day but they fought back.

One bone of contention. With 5 minutes to go the ref sin-binned one of theirs for dissent but didn't award the penalty, just the next play-the-ball to Wigan. This was 10 metres from their line and just out from the sticks, with a possible kick for the draw or a set of 6 on their line. That's a simple cock-up that shouldn't be happening.

Well played Wigan, deserved winners for sticking to your game plan, unlike us. Always a good game against the Bulldogs. Bring on the play-offs!!

Ashton Bears A 62-4 Fitton Hill.
Fittons minibus broke down on the way to us & a car got lost so we had a 3pm ko. This must have disrupted them because we went 20-0 up in 15 minutes & never looked back. A good display from us all round & plenty of positives to take into the second half of the season.

Two recent results for us...

Westhoughton 14 Tigers 34

Bit scrappy this one, got bogged down and into an arm wrestle, Westhoughton were better than a few of our lads expected and we only won due to 4 tries in the last 25.

Tigers 54 Bolton 12

Superb 1st half but took our foot off the gas. Really starting to hit our straps now, like I said a few weeks ago we will rue the 3 losses early doors and are still relying on favours that have yet to be forthcoming!

Next up is an away trip to Mancunians, what they like anyone?

Didn't play in our fixture against them but I believe they've a couple of decent players mixed in with quite a few inexperienced lads.

We've no game until Little Hulton on 27th July now. Last week was postponed after Chester advised their pitch had been double-booked, they offered a 5pm or Sunday ko but we couldn't do either. I think the RU club they're based at cocked things up. It'll be a month off by the time we play again.