Eccleston Lions 40 Burtonwood Bridge 20

BRIDGE travelled up to Bobbys Lane, St Helens on Saturday afternoon to take on the Eccleston Lions in this North West Men's League Division Three fixture.

The Lions were a huge team across the park and but despite this the speedier Burtonwood boys started the brighter with tries from hooker Sam O'Garra, and an excellent chip and chase effort from the flying winger Jake Boardman, to take the black and greens to a 10-0 lead.

Then disaster struck as one tackle took out two of Burtonwood's rocks for much of the game when centre Danny Reilly hyper extended an already injured elbow, and half back Andy Shelley took a nasty knock to his head.

The reshuffling and reorganisation that followed affected the young Burtonwood charges more than what could have been anticipated and within the mayhem Bridge conceded three quick tries.

Half time came and went without Burtonwood settling into anything like the game plan that needed to be executed to bring success.

Then as if by magic they wheels started to click and the execution of a much faster tempo laid the platform for the team to go forward on, two tries were to follow for the wood as hooker Sam O'Garra made his earlier effort into a double, and half Andy Shelley celebrated four points near to the posts.

Fatigue, and a lack of a bench then started to take its toll an despite getting to within four of Eccleston, the St Helens’ outfit stretched their lead in the final ten minutes to the final score of 40-20.

Best for Burtonwood were Ryan Farnan, O'Garra, Josh Glynn and full back Wil Maudsley.

Burtonwood; Wil Maudsley, Jake Boardman, Cal Farnan, Danny Reilly, Gary Cunningham, Brad Allen, Andy Shelley, Scott Birchwood, Sam O'Garra, Josh Glynn, Rikki St Pier, Ryan Farnan, Ryan Nicholson; Mike Blythe, Mike Quigley, Shane Eggleton.