Willenhall take Aldridge to the sword

Had you just watched the first 15 minutes you would of had no doubt that Aldridge were going to repeat their great performance of the previous week and cause another upset. Camped in the Willenhall 22, thanks to some great powerful runs from Ed O Neill, Ed Tonks, Dan Mckenna and Nick Yates - however we simply couldnt get over that white line, then one loose pass and a 95 yard breakaway try conceded and then it all started to go wrong....

On 20 minutes Ed O'Neill was Yellow Carded following a number of Team Penalties, a couple of soft tries then followed as we tackled too high whilst we were down to 14. Then his return to the pitch only lasted two minutes as a silly penalty (not even for a violent act!) was penalised with a second yellow and thus a red ! - back to 14. Half-time came and 26-0 down...

The goal was to regroup for the first 10 minutes then use the wind to better effect... This plan lasted 2 minutes as tackles were missed, heart was lost and we conceded a plethora of quick tries. We finally got on the scoresheet on 62 minutes with Adam Reed slotting a penalty from his own half, then after another fine break from Scrum Half Reed, he fed Full Back Adam Morris who beat three defenders from half way and scored under the posts. A final score of 64 - 10 to Willenhall didn't flatter them, they failed to convert on a number of chances and the scoreline could of been much worse.

Head Coach Jon Arch said "Beaten by a side who showed the desire to put their bodies on the line - beaten by a side who tackled legs - On the day beaten by a better side ! ! I'm massively disappointed, not by the result, you will always come up against good sides who are simply better than you, i'm disappointed that we showed little or no heart or pride, our heads went down and we just wanted the final whistle to come!"

"Willenhall showed us today what we need to aspire to deliver EVERY week next season on the pitch - that is the level we need to play to - we can do it - we are just not fit enough to do it for long enough... Every player is capable of making a rugby tackle, its just whether they stand up and be counted and make that tackle or if they take the view that someone else will make that tackle for them."

Man of the Match: Adam Reed