Manchester 2's lose to high flying Warrington

After last week’s bottom of the table clash with Anselmians Manchester hosted high flying Warrington. The visitors currently site on top of the table unbeaten and posting a lot of high scores against strong opposition. Once again the 2’s had to rely on help from the 3rd team to get a full squad out and thanks go to Tim Harper, Rick Carr, Ian Richerdson and Mal Barrett for stepping up a level to help the 2’s out.
It was the visitors who posted the first score of the day in the opening 5 minutes when they scored in the corner. It wasn’t long before the league leaders extended their lead to 10 points crossing the line again 10 minutes later.
Manchester did manage to contain the visitors for the next 10 minutes with some stout mid field defence until an infringement at the ruck gave Warrington the chance to extend their lead with a successful penalty kick.
Manchester fought back and were soon awarded a penalty for their efforts. Opting for the lineout the Manchester forwards drove the opposition pack back towards the line. With ball in hand Karl Higginson broke from the back of the maul to go over for Manchester’s first points of the game.
Confidence was now high in the home side especially the pack, who managed to out maul the visitors throughout the game, and when Warrington were penalised in a kickable position up stepped fly half Chris Lloyd to put Manchester within 5 points of the league leaders.
With half time approaching Warrington increased their lead to 20-8 when they broke through the Manchester defence to score under the post. The home side could have cut the deficit on the stroke of half time when centre Calum Hendry fly hacked a loose ball towards the line. Beating his man for pace Hendry kicked on again this time putting a little too much weight on the ball, sending it over the dead ball line.
The first 20 minutes of the second half turned into a war of attrition with neither side managing to add to their first half scores. Warrington threatened to break through the Manchester defence on numerous occasions but some great defensive work from the home pack especially flanker and MoM Zee Khan kept the visitors from scoring. The Manchester pack was under pressure from a much heavier Warrington pack at scrum time and some excellent pick up and carries from No* Martin Halsall ensured that Manchester had plenty of go forward.
Eventually the deadlock of the second half was broken when Warrington spun the ball wide and with some poor tackling from the Manchester back line the visitors extended their lead to 25-8. This seemed to be a catalyst for the home side to throw the towel in as, with 15 minutes left, it appeared that Manchester decided to give up making first up tackles. Despite having a man in the bin Warrington scored 2 tries in quick succession, the first cutting right through the centre of the Manchester mid filed defence the second being scored out wide.
Squad: 1) Tim Harper, 2) Calum Baines, 3) Matt Wilde, 4) Dom Thomas, 5) Ben Gordon), 6) Zee Khan (MoM), 7.Karl Higginson (1T) 8) Martin Halsall 9) Richard Leach 10) Chris Lloyd (c) (1P), 11) Josh Wilde, 12) Calum Hendry, 13) Ian Richardson, 14) James Hoggard, 15) Ant Forrest-Hilton.