Warrington 0pts v 67pts Broughton Park

Christmas cheer came early this year to Broughton Park as they comprehensively outplayed their hosts in every aspect of the game. With a rampaging pack the Park backs had a field day as they cut swaths through the Warrington defence.

Time after time the forwards won good quality ball and Shaun Stirrup was able to quickly and effectively feed the mercurial Tom Foden. Foden was ably supported by his centres who created enough holes in the Warrington defence for the 2 wingers and full back to explore the wide open spaces which opened up before them.

From the kick off Park showed their intent by gaining possession from their own kick off and surging towards the Warrington line. After 3 successful phases of play the ball was slipped to Foden who side stepped his way over the try line. It took a further 20 minutes before Park increased their lead. This time the try, scored by right winger Grahame Booker, came from a scrum on the half-way line and the ball was fed out quickly along the line for Booker to score in the corner. By this time Park were becoming dominant in the forwards. The scrum was working well and exerting pressure resulting in disrupting any ball the Warrington scrum half was able to get his hands on. The line out was effective and it was from a 5m line out that Park scored their next points with Andy O'Grady emerging from under a pack of forwards claiming the try.

The final try of the half came from debutante Alan Bardenhorst, who had an effective game, charging through the Warrington defence from the 22 to dot down in the corner. 24 - 0 at half time and within 2 minutes of the restart Park had increased the lead to 36 - 0 as first Ronan O'Brien touched down after the ball was smoothly moved from forwards to backs before Ronan finished off the move. The second score was an individual Simon Verbickas try as from the kick off Park secured the ball deep within their own half and fed Verbickas who kicked the ball behind the advancing Warrington defence, Verbickas then hacked the ball on and, judging the bounce to perfection, collected the ball to score unopposed under the posts.

The rest of the half belonged to Park as wave upon wave of Park attacks battered the now defeated defences of Warrington. Further tries were scored by Mark Poole, with 2 short range runs, Tom Foden, after good work from Ronan O'Brien and a neat pass from Andy O'Grady, Adam Middlehurst, after Tom Mapp had created a 2 on 1 and Adam strolled in from 22m and the final try of the game was scored by Verbickas as once again he chased a kick, this time from O'Brien, to touch down bringing his personal points tally to 22pts.

A very satisfactory result which keeps the pressure on the top two in the league and dramatically improves Parks points difference, which could be crucial at the end of the season. The final game of 2005 is next Saturday against Northwich, surprise victors against Leigh last week, and once again Park cannot afford to take it easy as every game from now to the end of the season means so much to the final league placings. The team can ill afford to relax and must be as ruthless and clinical as they were this Saturday