West Warrington (IMBRL) 32
Blackburn Knights 22
@ Hood Lane - 29/09/07 - NWC5

West Warrington went in search of their first "official" win of the season as Blackburn provided the opposition at Hood Lane.

The Wolves had lost heavily against Moss Bank and Spring View in the opening two rounds, before a failed fixture against Folly Lane A and a free weekend following the withdrawal of Wigan Bulldogs from the league, had left the club without a fixture for two weeks.

However the time off had allowed the side to recover from the experience at Spring View and ahead of the game, the side looked its strongest for a long time.

Former Newton Storm player Liam Rowe came in at full-back whilst Phil Briggs also made his debut at centre and Liam O’Brien was back in action following his injury at work.

The game started brightly for the home side and the Wolves made good use of their strong looking back division as the ball was shipped across the line and Jonathan Knight broke clear to score. With O’Brien goaling Warrington led 6-0.

Blackburn responded with a converted try of their own but then good hands by Neil Ashurst set Tom Ratcliffe up for a score, which was again converted and the home side firmly took control when Rowe crashed over out wide to take the game out to 16-6.

After a period of indiscipline in which the Knights had approximately five sets of tackles on the Wolves line and led to the sin-binning of Simon Skelton, the visitors crossed to make the score 16-10 at the break.

However a good start to the second period saw Knight cross for his second which looked to have put the Wolves in the driving seat at 22-10. But two converted tries by the Knights brought the game level before an 80-metre interception from Matt Lawton, gave the home side the upper hand once more and victory was finally assured when Ratcliffe crossed for a second late on.

Man of the Match for Warrington was Rowe who made an excellent contribution on debut whilst the coach made special note of Ratcliffe and Nat Ashurst.

Wolves: Liam Rowe, Matt Lawton, Phil Briggs, Jonathan Knight, Tom Mahoney, Andy Hawley, Karl Case, Steve Brown, Liam O'Brien, Paul Arnison, Nat Ashurst, Neil Ashurst, Tom Ratcliffe. Subs: Simon Skelton, Keith Ryan, Dave Leicester, Ian Johnson.
Tries: Knight (2), Ratcliffe (2), Rowe, Lawton.
Goals: O'Brien (3), Rowe.