Chester Gladiators 4

Burtonwood Bridge 46

AIDAN Doyle crossed for a hat-trick of tries as Burtonwood sealed a spectacular end to their season with an emphatic 46-4 victory at Chester, writes Nathan Okell.

Before his own scoring feat, though, Doyle’s great centre play led to a brace of tries from Tommy Robinson as Bridge raced into a 10-0 lead against the North West Men’s League Division Three bottom team.

Jos Woods missed the conversion for the first try, however this proved to be his only miss of the game.

This lead could have been extended further through Jack O’Neill and Robinson again, however O’Neill’s pass went to ground with the line begging and Robinson was bundled into touch through excellent Chester scrambling defence.

Chester came close to replying with a try of their own, but solid defence from Woods denied them from close range.

Turning defence into attack, Bridge extended their lead to 16-0 with Doyle running a clever line to pierce through the Gladiators defence.

Chester began to look fatigued as the half progressed, allowing Burtonwood to take advantage.

A superb Woods reverse pass set loose forward Dan Hart away, with top try-scorer Oli Morrissey backing up in support to cross unopposed.

Bridge then grabbed another before the end of the half, with the impressive Woods throwing a dummy and a step to break through the Chester defence and score, giving Burtonwood a well deserved 28-0 lead.

The second half began in the same mode as the first, with hooker Jack Graham scooting from dummy half and producing a sublime chip and re-gather to score.

Graham was again involved in the next try for Doyle, with a pin-point cross field kick being collected by the leaping centre and touched down to extend Bridge’s lead to 40-0 Chester did cross in the corner for a consolation late on in the game; however it was not enough to stop the Burtonwood momentum, with the final try being scored by Doyle to complete his hat trick.

Full-back Morrissey collected a Chester kick downfield and produced a well timed pass to send the centre clean through to claim his third try of the afternoon.

The conversion was good by Dan Hart, bringing the scores at the end of the game to 46-4 for the visitors.

Bridge coach Lee Cunningham, whose side finished 36-2 victors over Crosfields A in their previous game, was full of praise for his players, stating: “I’m proud of the boys to finish the season the way that they have.

“To only concede one try in two matches and equally score 84 points during the same period is a real testament to the current squad.

“The number of current under 18’s who have played open age football this year creates a very real excitement as we move into the future.”

Burtonwood: Oli Morrissey; Theo Lee, Will Weir, Aidan Doyle, Tom Robinson; Connor Davies, Jos Blackburn Woods; Rikki St Pier, Jack Graham, Craig Burke, Craig Stanton, Jack O’Neill, Jacob Almond. Subs: Dan Hart, James Innes, Cian Rhys, James Booth.