New Brighton . . . . 7pts, Whitchurch . . . . 13pts

TITLE-CHASING New Brighton return to Thwaites North League Division One action, on Saturday, when they travel to table toppers Doncaster for what is, without doubt, a crunch meeting.

Former England international Wade Dooley is due to return for the Seasiders, while the Yorkshiremen have giant lock Kevin Westgarth and the two Senior brothers at the heart of their pack. It promises to be a really bruising encounter . . .

With Doncaster scheduled to visit Reeds Lane for the last league match of the season, and with the Yorkshire outfit, together with Widnes, Middlesbrough and New Brighton, chasing the single promotion spot into the National League, the Blues will do well to lift the points.

It was a below strength New Brighton who succumbed to Thwaites Midlands League Division One leaders Whitchurch in Saturday's 'friendly' at Reeds Lane.

Blues veteran Bernie Hearn said afterwards: "This was a game of missed chances. They missed three, but we missed a lot more." He was not wrong!

When Hancock kicked ahead on nine minutes, the big winger found himself chasing the bouncing ball with the try line at his mercy and no defenders to beat. Unfortunately, his second touch sent the ball out of play and the Blues' first scoring chance was gone.

With no fewer than 12 of their regulars unavailable, New Brighton struggled to find their form but were seldom stretched by the visitors. Turley, Hodges and Tully all went close, but the wall of Whitchurch red shirts held firm as several scoring chances were missed.

Whitchurch full-back Gareth Masters broke the deadlock on 23 minutes with a well taken drop goal.

New Brighton's captain for the day, Shaun Gallagher, was inspirational at lock, leading his men from the front. Gazzola, Lamb and Hodgers caused problems for Whitchurch with powerful drives, while full-back Robbie Harman impressed with speedy counter attacks.

Hancock made two more scoring chances with his strong running, but failed to breach the defence. New Brighton spurned several opportunities to kick at goal from penalties, choosing to run them all.

The opening exchanges of the second-half were even until Maycock hit home with a penalty on 50 minutes to extend the visitors' lead to 0-6. Then stand-off Neil Maycock crashed over before converting his try to give Whitchurch a 0-13 advantage.

Blues coach Lawrie Connor brought new boy John O'Boyle into the backs and brought himself and Chris Bentley into the line up. From this point, it was all New Brighton, and when Carl Turley crashed over to score out wide eight minutes from time, the smell of a famous Blues fight-back was in the air. Eighteen-year-old Steve Johnson succeeded with a difficult conversion narrowing the gap to just six points at 7-13.

Hancock knocked on with the best of two scoring chances created by a defiant Lawrie Connor. Clearly, the player coach has lost none of his competitive spirit as he drove the Blues to the end. When referee Peter Lawson called full time the Blues were only inches short of the Whitchurch line. It was a creditable performance from New Brighton's young bloods who, despite missing most of their senior players, could, and perhaps should, have won.

New Brighton: Rob Harman, Steve Johnson, Sion O'Hare, Chris Sutton, Steve Hancock, Andrew Nelson, Simon Wright, Phil Gazzola, Karl 'Hippy' Davies, Darren 'Pingu' Davis, Carl Turley, Shaun Gallagher, Jez Lamb, Dan Tulley, Lee Hodgers, Chris Bentley, Lawrie Connor, Bernie Hern, John O'Boyle.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.