St Anne’s finally grind out victory

Photo: PICTURE: CHRIS SUNDERLAND

IN A BATTLE: Saints' John Fox had to work to earn the team their points.

RUGBY:

OLDHAM St Anne’s were forced to dig deep before securing a 42-26 victory over tenacious 11-man Widnes West Bank.

The visitors to Higginshaw Road, who sat in second place in National Conference League Division Two before this clash, kept pegging Saints back — despite travelling with only 13 players, losing full-back Alex Brown with a suspected broken ankle in the first half and having Ryan Bates sent off late in the game.

With one man down, West Bank were in with a shout of taking the points. Trailing by 16, they stunned the home supporters by scoring three tries and adding two goals to level at 26-26.

But St Anne’s substitute Michael Cadd gave his team the advantage again with a try 10 minutes from time and after the red card, Chris Bell crossed from the resultant penalty with Cadd adding a further score. Kiel Lancashire kicked both conversions.



IN Division One, Waterhead suffered a heavy home loss, 70-24 to Bradford Dudley Hill.

Nathan Kitson registered a hat-trick of tries and kicked nine goals for a personal tally of 30 points, in a game the visitors had under control by half-time.



SECOND-BOTTOM Saddleworth Rangers lost 36-18 at Rochdale Mayfield in Division One.