North West Counties Division Three

Mark Norris Building Services

ALBERT Park gained a valuable two points at Haydock with what in the end was a fairly comfortable win.

It proved to be an even better victory when you consider that they trailed 14-0 after only 15 minutes play.

It could not have started any worse for the Albert.

They were struggling to control the ball and Haydock were capitalising on the Albert's mistakes by running in three tries, one of which was converted to give the home side a commanding 14-0 lead.

The first time the Albert put a string of passes together it brought a try when Walton fed Quinn who made a half break before putting a deep kick down field.

The ball bounced perfectly for Jimmy Mellor who raced behind the posts for a fine try, Walton converted.

On their next attack the Albert came away with another try when the Haydock defence failed to deal with a high kick and Chris Walton was on hand to snap up the loose pass and go over for a try, which he converted himself.

Haydock forced their way up field but a loose pass was intercepted by Albert Park centre Paul Graham who raced 75 yards for a fine try.

Walton again converted to give the Albert an 18-14 half time lead.

The score remained the same until midway through the second half when the Albert scored the try of the match.

Superb handling across the line by Ditchfield, Randall and Quinn created an overlap for Jimmy Mellor whose pace took him over in the corner for his second try of the match and 15th of the season.

Another quick try soon followed when a short pass from Gaz Rolt found Mick Randall who proved unstoppable from five yards.

Again Walton added the extras to give the Albert a 28-14 lead.

Haydock were not going to go down without a fight and pulled a converted try back through their second row man.

It was the Albert however who had the last word when Haydock lost possession of the ball and Alan Ditchfield was on hand to collect the loose ball an go over for a try from 15 yards out.

Walton wrapped up proceedings with his fifth conversion of the afternoon to give the Albert victory by 34-20.

This turned out to be a very good performance from Albert Park once they had got over the first 15 minutes.

Full b3ack Ste Roberts was named man of the match closely followed by Mick Randall and Chris Walton.