Latchford Albion 34 Bamber Bridge 16

LATCHFORD Albion secured promotion to the North West Men’s League Premier Division with a comfortable victory over Bamber Bridge.

In front of a large and expectant crowd at Victoria Park Stadium on Saturday, Albion produced a controlled display to sealed second place in Division One behind champions Orrell St James.

Connor Muir continued his impressive scoring run with a try he converted himself following good work fromfellow half-back Dave Yii.

Danny Brown dummied his way over soon after to open up a 12-point lead within the first 10 minutes.

After Bridge got on the board with their first try, Muir left the visiting defence in his wake to score his second try from 40 yards.

With half time approaching the visitors scored again to narrow the gap to eight points at the break.

As with the first half, it was The hosts who opened the scoring for the second period when a wide ball from hooker Roberto Stratford-Fuentes allowed Joe Clarke to get outside his man and held off three defenders to ground the ball out wide to put Albion in control.

Muir completed his hat-trick shortly afterwards to ensure Latchford opened up a comfortable lead.

Bamber Bridge never gave up and were rewarded with a good team try. However, victory and promotion was sealed with a brilliant individual try from Drew Bradley, who raced 50 yards down the touchline to outpace the Bridge defenders.

Latchford: Hickman; Bradley, Metcalfe, Wood, Rowlinson; Muir, Yii; Birchall, Stratford-Fuentes, Levenson, Woolvine, Clarke, Brown. Subs: Crosby, McGuiness.