A bad day at the office . . .

Kirkby Lonsdale Colts v Wirral Colts, Sunday 25th January
Kirkby Lonsdale welcomed Wirral to Underley Park. A dry, overcast day gave everyone a better feeling after lasts weeks wet and cold mud bath! The narrow loss away to Wirral earlier in the season gave Kirkby hope to forget last weeks loss to Caldy. With Kirkby’s injury and unavailability roll-call still impacting selection, another experimental line up in the back division saw returning Hill at 13 and utility back Southey starting at 10.
Kirkby started well, taking the fight to a well drilled physical Wirral, Hutchings and Barker hit hard lines and pushed Wirral pack towards their own 22, Holdsworth, Parry, Black, Muldowney, Barker, Harrison and Skelton-Montgomery putting in a shift in the meat grinder. Kirkby went close, but great defending from Wirral turned over the ball. Hill, Southey Muldowney and Parry made some hard hits as Wirral tried to break out. Wirral started to make some metres but the hard hitting Hill created them problems. Southey and Williams took the turned over ball forward. A Wirral player was taken off with suspected concussion after a ferocious break down. However, Wirral came back with pace and energy, Hill making a brave tackle took a knee and foot to the head, but Wirral broke free and scored in the corner. 0-5 to Wirral. Hill had to come off and went to hospital with a serious suspected concussion. Speedy recovery Leo! Kirkby Lonsdale took the fight back to Wirral with Clayton being held up. Hopton going close and Stephens trying to make metres. A Wirral player went down with a leg injury after bravely defending the Clayton attempt. Wirral pushed Kirkby back, but Black, Willoughby and Muldowney retrieved the ball, Armer found Southey to unleash the Rolls Royce fullback Williams on his return to the team. He glided past several Wirral players to run in a 60 metre try. 5-5. From the kick off Kirkby worked the ball from their 22 again, Southey was hit high, the referee had no choice to award the Wirral player a yellow card. Barker carried hard, and Harrison and Willoughby carried well, but the Wirral defence was steadfast. Wirral made a lightning attack, they found gaps in the scrambling Kirkby defence to score. 5-10.
Kirkby came back again, with Southey and Muldowney combining with a neat interchange of passes, but neither of them trusted their pace to beat the last few defenders, and a loose pass was sent to winger Wray. From the resultant knock-on Wirral gathered and scored too easily in the corner. 5-15. Half time, Kirkby had chances, but didn’t take them and didn’t defend as a unit. Wirral took their very chances well. A strong message at half-time hopefully would get the lads focussed for the second half.
The second half started with a strong Wirral start from the kick-off, Kirkby Lonsdale asleep let in another try. 5-20. Not the start the home side wanted.
From the kick-off Kirkby Lonsdale rallied again, Barker, Hutchings and Black creating the platform for Armer to unleash Southey and Muldowney to unlock flying full back to run in his second try. 10-20. Much better from the home side. From the kick-off Kirkby had a stint of possession; Stephens, Willoughby, Wray and Hopton all had hands on the ball. Clayton making another good run. But the strong Wirral side took control, scoring two more tries against the run of play in quick succession and a conversion. 10-32. Kirkby kept going, but the hard running 8 Barker was down with a heavy blow to his knee, some brave running by Muldowney, Black, Hutchings, Southey and Williams tried to find a route through. But there wasn’t any way back for Kirkby.
A dog-legged Kirkby Lonsdale defence let in another Wirral try. 10-37. The final five minutes Kirkby tried to go forward again, Muldowney took a shoulder to the face as he tried to take the ball forward and from the resultant penalty Southey went down with a calf injury.
Final score 10-37.
Not the day the home side wanted, but a lack of defensive cohesion, work-rate and attacking intelligence handed a well drilled physical Wirral side the win.
To make matters worse the injury list grows with Hill (Head), Barker (Knee), Southey (Calf), Muldowney (Face) and Skelton-Montgomery (Ankle) giving the coaches another head scratching and tense week on selection.
Next week Kirkby Lonsdale travel to Sandbach.


Pictures courtesy of Robin Ree