Availability issues prove too much for Wednesbury

Wednesbury went down 17-7 to visiting Linley in a hard-fought contest with their cause not being helped by illness and injuries that left the hosts depleted and forced 56-year-old Andy Clarke to step up from the second team.

All the points were scored in the first half, with the visitors striking first with a converted try after 10 minutes.

They increased their lead five minutes later with a penalty, but Wednesbury kept battling away against a big, powerful side who took a lot of breaking down. But the home side’s effort were rewarded just before the half-hour mark. Their forwards used the rolling maul to good effect, driving Linley back towards their own try line and Jordan Allwood, with the ball in hand, dived over for the try. Matt Dale added the conversion to make it 10-7.

But Linley then struck again before half-time with a converted try that proved to be the last score of the game.

The second half continued as the first half with both sides battering each other, but neither side created any real scoring opportunities.

Poor decisions, bad passes and dropped balls checked Wednesbury’s hopes of mounting a comeback.