Broughton Park were unable to stretch their lead at the top of South Lancs & Cheshire League 1 as second place Wilmslow surpassed Park in every aspect of the game to thoroughly deserve their narrow victory. In fact the margin of victory could have been greater. Late in the second half Ronan O'Brien hauled down the Wilmslow winger inches from the line and minutes later Matt Sheen repeated the feat on the opposite wing.

Wilmslow, to their credit, carried out their game plan to perfection by not allowing Tom Foden, the Park fly half, any space to operate in. However on one of the few occasions Foden was allowed any space he put Tom Mapp through a gap and the centre, kept possession of the ball until support arrived and Mark Poole dived over to score. This reduced Wilmslow lead early in the second half to 5 points.

Park started the game brightly enough with Verbickas kicking a penalty in the first 5 mins of the game but instead of building on the lead it was Wilmslow who came back strongly. Their first try came from a rehearsed move from a scrum 15m from the Park line when their No. 7 crashed over after smart work from the Wilmslow No. 10, MacCallum. Wilmslow increased their lead on the stroke of half time when poor tackling allowed MacCallum to chase his own speculative kick to score.

Even though Park scored early in the second half it was Wilmslow who looked the most likely to score. Poor discipline from Park and an inability to see how many men Wilmslow had in their line out gave Wilmslow the possession they needed from the resulting penalties.

The lead to Wilmslow was further increased when Will Masters dived on a loose ball over the Park line to score. Wilmslow now led 17pts to 8 and looked home and hosed.

Park brought on their substitutes and Coackley, in particular, began to break the gain line with some surging runs in the centre. From a sustained attack, starting from the Park backs, who were now willing to risk all by throwing the ball around every time they received the ball, the Park forwards set up a driving maul and once again Mark Poole crashed over.

The last few minutes of the game were frantic but Park were unable to score again and Wilmslow had closed the lead at the top of the table to 1 point after their victory.

Full credit to the Wilmslow team on their victory, even though some of their time wasting antics in the second half were exasperating. Park must now regroup and put this lacklustre performance behind them. The league title is still their to be won and with 7 games remaining, 4 at home, the final league placings are in Parks own hands.

David Walsh, 1st XV Manager Broughton Park