Broughton Park 5

Winnington Park 22

WINNINGTON took the opportunity of a free weekend in their league campaign to have their second friendly of the year against Broughton Park.

A solid first-half performance put Winnington on the way to victory, and they then defended solidly in the second half to stay in command.

Despite playing into a strong wind, Winnington were first to score when first team newcomer Neil Waring crossed in the corner after 13 minutes.

A second try was added three minutes later, when Phil Sharples nipped in following a Broughton Park error on their own line, and the in-form Dave Hill converted to make it 12-0.

In the 20th minute, recalled second row forward Ian Adamson scored the third Winnington try, coming up from the bottom of a strong rolling maul from a lineout, but Hill this time failed to convert.

As the weather conditions started to deteriorate late in the first half, Broughton started to attack the Winnington line, but their best effort ended with a knock-on close to the line.

Just before the end of the first half Winnington completed their scoring, but not before the second yellow card of the match was given to Broughton hooker Terry Hughes.

From the penalty Winnington had a good, clean tap ball from Adamson. The ball was then fed down the line to Waring, who held on and crossed in the corner for his second try, making it 22-0.

Following positional changes at half-time, Broughton looked a different side and immediately started on the attack, but Winnington held them out.

Ten minutes into the second half the game changed for Winnington as they lost inspirational hooker Matthew Dodd with a dislocated shoulder. This brought the arrival of Chris Gleave, with Dave Allcock moving to hooker.

Winnington's defence was finally breached midway through the half when, following a chip over the top, Neil Parkin crossed for an unconverted try.

After that the heavens opened and the pitch rapidly became slippery, producing a number of handling errors.

Winnington held on well, with several players playing out of position, and they can take encouragement from how well they defended.

THIS Saturday, November 6, Winnington entertain Bradford in the league. Kick-off will be at 1pm so that the players and spectators can watch the World Cup final on TV afterwards.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.