Blackpool Stanley 14 Woolston Rovers A 44
NWM Shield 1^st Round
Kingscote Park, Saturday 13^th May 2017

Stanley played opposition from a higher division once again in the 1^st Round of the North West Mens Shield Competition. Woolston A are top of the 4^th Division and their 1^st team play in the National Conference. Despite much stronger opposition Stanley approached the game with confidence following some improving recent results.

There were some changes for Stanley in key positions and Woolston took advantaged early on as new pairings settled in and built understanding, with only 15 minutes gone Woolston has raced to a 16 – 0 lead.

Stanley seemed to settle the ship a little, improved their defence and started to gain confidence with ball in hand, with 20 minutes gone and deep in the Woolston half the ball found its way to Jordan Hindley who showed much strength and skill to get passed the Woolston wing and cover to score in the corner. 4 – 16

This score encouraged Stanley and with new understanding growing amongst the players Tom Cockcroft barged over from short range close to the posts for a converted try 10 – 16.

The scoring wasn’t to continue and just before the break Woolston struck back to make the half time score 10 – 22.

The second half started much as the first with Woolston’s superior game management getting the upper hand and increasing errors coming in the Stanley defence. Clever work by the Woolston scrum half and hooker resulted in a number of scores and Woolston lead 10 – 40 going in to the last ten minutes.

Tony Hick barged over from short range to make the score 14 – 40 and Woolston added a further score before the final whistle making the final score 14 – 44.

Stanley dip out of the shield comp but will take some encouragement from the game time and addition experience gained.

Next Home Game Saturday 20h May 2017, Kingscote Park 2:30pm in The NWM Division 5 v Saddleworth Rangers.