A scratch First Team due to numerous injuries and late withdrawals travelled to Top of the Table Bowdon and in the end came away extremely disappointed to lose 29 - 12 after dominating the First Half turning around 12 - 9 in the lead. The game being played on an extremely soft and wet pitch appeared to have two very well matched teams who entered into an extremely competitive contest but the visiting team felt that a number of key refereeing decisions went against them and allowed this to affect their game in the second half. To be fair to the Home Team they effectively changed their tactics at half time and moved the ball away from a dominant Ormskirk Pack and counter attacked exceptionally well. Despite the numerous curious refereeing decisions in the Second Half the Home team finished the strongest as some good impact substitutes by Bowden allowed them to finish with a flourish.
On a day when every visiting team lost in South Lancs/Cheshire Division One numerous players who have not played for the First Team this season before this game can be proud of a very good performance and fantastic team spirit from players who in some cases had never met before. Bowden who played a simple but effective second half sit at the Top of the Table but were defiantly not the best team we have met so far this year and will do extremely well to retain that position as the season progresses.
Elsewhere in the club the Seconds continued their slide down the League loosing the 5th League Match on the trot, 76 -12 and desperately need to find a core of players who can consistently commit to playing week in week out for this side and re-find the good team spirit of the past couple of seasons. The late withdrawals of players from the First Team of course does not help but it is vital that some of the more senior club players are motivated to make themselves available again week in week out to prevent a team who had such a positive start to the season from falling into a relegation battle later in the season.
The Thirds went down 11 - 7 to Christleton but the Fourths did the club proud with the solitary win of the weekend beating Carnforth 42 - 10 despite loosing numerous players minutes before kick off to the Seconds which is really not fair to this well organised and supported team.
The regular First and Second Team Players need to sort their priorities out and more consistently make themselves available to stop this trickle effect down the club which leaves others to pick up the pieces at the last minute which is becoming a regular weekly event that needs to stop with immediate effect to keep the season on track.
