WEST Park defeated Sefton 15-10 on a chilly Friday evening under floodlights a close game was anticipated by an unusually large crowd.

Sefton’s big and well drilled pack took the early initiative, controlling the ball and field position, however the visitors defence effectively repelled everything the home side could throw at them in the first half, with strong tackles from the back row of Cousins, Potter and Loughnane particularly impressive.

West Park’s backs were also defending well, with Sefton’s outstanding Number 8 being held up twice over the line by a combination of full back Matt Savage and scrum half Dave Dickinson. The visitor’s centres, Lee Rosney and Danny Green kept the centre field defence intact also, and winger Warren Hunt’s kicking from defence relieved pressure on a number of occasions.

Certainly the first half owed much to West Park’s dogged defensive efforts in keeping the home side scoreless.

Eventually the visitors made some decent progress into Sefton’s half, and Hunt kicked a long range penalty to give Park a three point lead at half time .

The visitors started much the brighter in the second half, and as a result of an excellent turnover from their forwards, stand off Basley produces a bit of magic to score an excellent individual try converted by Hunt to increase the lead to ten points

West Park wasted a number of good opportunities to but the game to bed , and some sloppy play handed field position to Sefton and from a close range ruck replacement back row Carruthers crashed over for an unconverted try. The same play was then repeated and the same player scored a very similar try, again unconverted but tying the scores at ten points apiece.

Both sides tried hard for the winning score, and following a long Sefton clearance kick retrieved deep in West Park’s half by winger Hunt, he neatly fed supporting full back Matt Savage who raced 50 yards to create a gap for flanker Matt Cousins to side step the final Sefton defender and crash over in the corner for a memorable try. Hunt was unable to convert from the touchline , and the referee then blew the whistle to bring the game to an end.

The match was played in a good sporting spirit with both sides trying to play open rugby, each to their respective strengths. There were many outstanding performances from the visitors with Matt Cousins just edging out his back row colleague Patrick Loughnane as man of the match. Special mention of veteran prop Dave Conroy who rolled back the years with a couple of barn storming runs and some excellent scrummaging and work in the tight.

Next week West Park 1st XV travel to Winnington Park, where another solid display of effective tackling will undoubtedly be required.

West Park 2nd XV 25 pts V Wigan 2nd XV 17 pts

Birkenhead Park 3rd XV 22 pts V West Park 3rd XV 19 pts