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New hope for survival

Peter Jones
5/ 4/2006

Nat League 3 (N)
New Brighton 0
Macclesfield 48

MACCLESFIELD secured five more precious points in their fight for survival as they ripped apart a struggling New Brighton side in a seven-try romp.

With only three league games remaining, the Blues must be confident they can cause further surprises in the run-in after only one defeat in six games.

"Despite the win, one or two basic errors let the team down, and it is essential that these must be eliminated against better opposition," said player-coach Dave Muckalt.

"That aside, there were some outstanding individual performances. Ross Winney ran the game from fly half, Tony Howcroft and Paul Bartle frequently broke the gain line, while the pack played well for the majority of the game and were always going forward. And a nil score against New Brighton is always impressive."

Front row trio Scott Goodfellow, Pete Allen and Rob Bieniasz took the game to the Merseysiders, and when Winney wrong-footed the defence and broke through, Goodfellow was on hand to open the scoring. Winney converted.

The Blues piled on the pressure and, with Will Stockdale and Tim Kerr dominating the lineout, New Brighton were reeling and centre Howcroft cut through to score his first of the afternoon on 18 minutes. Winney converted, and then added a penalty.

A five-metre scrum saw Johnnie Keep pick up then feed winger Jamie Boothroyd to run in a simple try, before full back Ben Coulbeck produced a scything break and then passed to winger Jim Watts, who dummied the opposition to score by the posts, handing Macc the try-bonus point before half-time.

New Brighton began the second half with renewed vigour but, when they lost a man to the sin-bin, Winney took control. Enjoying good service from scrum-half Guy Mason, the fly half was having a field day and broke through to score a fine individual try.

Howcroft grabbed his second try soon after, again converted by Winney, before Nick Pearson completed the home side's misery when he took a scoring pass after some excellent approach work.

MACCLESFIELD: Goodfellow (Harrison), Allen (Donaldson), Bieniasz, Stockdale (Hewitt), Kerr, Jones, Pearson, Keep, Mason, Winney, Boothroyd, Howcroft, Bartle, Watts (Browning), Coulbeck.