EGREMONT RANGERS (AWAY)
Leigh Miners play their final away game of the regular season on Saturday when they travel North up the M6 to take on Egremont Rangers in Round 25 of the NCL Kingstone Press Cider Premier Division, Kick off 2-30pm at Gillfoot Park.
Miners make the trip up to Cumbria having bounced back from the Wath Brow defeat with a 48-8 home victory against relegated Wigan St Judes last weekend, the performance though being far from convincing especially in the second half, with Miners showing no respect whatsoever for the football. The win moving Miners up into third in the league which is their best position of the season and realistically the best they can now finish with West Hull and Wath Brow Hornets more or less sowed up their position in the top two. The lads know if they are to finish third and give themselves a good crack in the playoffs they will have to improve massively on last weeks performance if they are to pick up the two wins they need against tough opposition. Patience will be the order of the day on Saturday with Miners needing to grind out there sets and get to a kick instead of trying to score off every play, while in defence they will need to be tough, aggressive and make sure there line speed is very good against a big Egremont outfit.
One player who is certainly happy to be back in the side is international centre Adam Thomason, speaking of his return after four month out with a shoulder injury Adam said “It’s good to be back playing, much sooner than first anticipated. We had a disappointing result against Wath Brow but it was good to get the first game out of the way. The effort was there from the lads but unfortunately they were the better side on the day”.
On the win last week Adam said “last week against St Jude’s was a good result, although I don’t think the performance was what we wanted. Especially in the second half were we failed to kill the game after scoring plenty of points in the first half. On the plus side, it was nice to shut Grovesy up by gifting him a try early on!”.
Looking ahead to this week Thomason added “We must improve on our second half performance this week against Egremont. They are a good side with some quality individuals. They play open rugby and pushed us close earlier on in the year. It will be important at the weekend to get off to a good start if we are to come away with the desired result”.
Coaches Allan Coleman and Paul Whitworth are forced into making six changes from the St Judes win, with Matt Astley and Andrew Groves missing through work commitments, young Matty Wilkinson away for the weekend, Mark Nicholson and Tommy Parkinson both injured and overseas recruit Shaun Dowie who has now returned home for the rest of the year. Coming into the side are Chris Bower, Martin Gray, Danny Jones, Sean MacDonald, Dave Rowlands and Scott Travis.
On last weeks performance against Wigan St Judes coach Allan Coleman said “I thought first half we played some good rugby and scored some great tries, but in the second half we lost alot of composer and structure,we tried to score to many points instead of sticking to how we was in the first half”.
Looking ahead to Saturdays visit to Cumbria, Allan added “It’s going to be a very tough game on Saturday, we have not won at Egremont in the summer era and we will have to go into the game in right frame of mind and grind the win out by playing completion rugby all afternoon, But we are a strong and a good team so we don’t fear anyone”.
Egremont Rangers have been in good form over the last couple of months which as seen them get into playoff contention, but after losing 26-10 away at Thatto Heath Crusaders last weekend The Mont who currently sit in 8th position on 24 points, three points behind sixth place Lock Lane will need to have two big wins in there remaining games and hope the sides above them who they can still catch slip up to have any chance of making the playoffs. When the two sides met at Twist Lane back in June, Miners beat an understrength Egremont side 36-24.
Leigh Miners 2nd team travel to Widnes on Saturday to take on Wigan St Pats in the NWML Division Two Grand Final, Kick off 2pm at The Select Security Stadium home of the Widnes Vikings. The two sides have played each other three times already this season with St Pats winning both league encounters and Miners winning the semi final of NWML trophy at Twist Lane.
Leigh Miners Ladies and the u18s have now finished their seasons.
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