Good win for Aldridge

This hastily arranged fill-in friendly provided a hard fought, even contest that ebbed and flowed throughout. With a following wind it was visitors Willenhall who made the best start that gave them territory, possession and pressure that soon had us on the back foot. Winning a stream of ball, the visitors continually stretched our defence and it was beginning to look like they were going to have a rewarding afternoon but we remained resolute to the extent that as the interval approached, all Willenhall had to show for their efforts was a solitary penalty by centre Alan Dyke. By tightening up our forward play we began to gain the ascendancy and as our forwards made more of a nuisance of themselves, the increased possession this provided soon showed that we could also mount effective attacks. A move off the back row some 20 metres out put No8 “Barney” into space with a lot to do but a determined run, beating off would be tacklers, put him over in the corner. Shortly afterwards, as the interval approached, a quickly taken penalty was moved through the hands to “Mo” Harbutt who was the man to cross the line mid-way out. No10 Adam Reed added the conversion to leave us sitting on a comfortable looking 12-3 lead at the break.
We continued to dominate in the second half and some sustained forward pressure won us a penalty try, converted by Adam Reed, which gave us what was beginning to look like an unassailable lead but we made a lot of substitutions in the second half which meant that our shape suffered a little, prising the door open for a Willenhall comeback. A try between the posts scored and converted by No10 Luke Jelf, and in the dying minutes a second by Alan Dyke, also converted by Jelf, reduced the deficit to 19 – 17 at the end.