Portico 24 Woolston Rovers A 12w (From St Helens Star)

Portico 24 Woolston Rovers A 12

7:10am Monday 4th March 2013 in Sport

 Portico were moved up to division two for their successes of last season when they won the North West Men’s League 4th division and with a little trepidation they began their season with a tricky home game to Woolston Rovers A.

Their fears were well founded as their opponents proved to be worthy adversaries in a tough no holds barred encounter. After stalemate for the first 25 minutes Portico eventually wore down the Woolston defensive line when after repeat sets of six they went in under the posts. Portico stretched their lead to 12 points just before half time when after a series of line bursting drives from Carl Haggerty , Gareth Flynn and Paul Leyland Kev Rooney scored again under the posts.

The second half saw Portico extend their lead when Mike Parr finished of a slick move involving Nathan Ashurst, Dale Croft and Mike Astbury .If Portico thought that they had seen Woolston off they were badly mistaken because Woolston showed they had a good fighting spirit within their team when they struck back through James Dudley and Tom Fagan both tries converted by Ryan Cosgrove. If anything last season Portico had a tendency to let opposition sides back into games after looking convincing winners and they looked like they had done it again until Kev Rooney sealed the win five minutes from time. All Portico’s tries were converted by Mike Parr and the Ravenhead Laundry Man of the Match was Kevin Rooney.