Away-day win puts Waterhead on a high

WATERHEAD produced what coach Mick Slicker described as “the best performance of the season” to defeat Castleford Lock Lane 30-16 away from home.

Prior to the weekend, the Peach Road side had clashed with the West Yorkshire outfit three times already this season, losing on every occasion.

This time though, inspired by man-of-the-match Andrew Cheetham and stand-off Terry Fitzgerald, Waterhead secured two National Conference League division two points that ends fears of finishing the campaign in the re-election zone.

Paddy Slicker went over for a 12th-minute try for the visitors, Fitzgerald adding a second try and kicking both conversions.

Lock Lane tries from Adam Myers and James Cryer, plus a Dale Cogan goal, made it 12-10 at half-time.

Will Schofield extended Waterhead’s advantage four minutes after the break, but a Craig Jones try was added to by Cogan’s conversion to level the scores.

However, Slicker’s men pulled away thanks to three tries from Mick Diveny, Cheetham and Paul Geener, and the final score would have been even more emphatic had the visitors not had three tries disallowed.

It wasn’t such a good day for SADDLEWORTH RANGERS, though, who finished off a busy week in disappointing fashion by losing 12-10 at West Bowling.

Wing pair Shaun Robinson and Dave Hewitt stood out for Keith Brennan’s men but their efforts, along with those of man-of-the-match Michael Coates, weren’t enough to get Rangers the points they needed to maintain the chase for a top-three promotion spot.

Bowling opened the scoring through a Mark Nichols try, goaled by Lee Innes after 15 minutes and added a second when Calum Dinsdale squeezed over, Innes again converting.

Back came Rangers through Hewitt, Coates converting, and the gap was reduced to two points when James Whalley raced home.

But the second half was scoreless, leaving Saddleworth without anything to show from their third match in eight days.

“We were a bit disappointed with the performance,” admitted Brennan.

“Especially after the performance we put in to beat Normanton last week and the way we followed it up by pushing Siddal all the way on Wednesday night.”