Northern Division - South Lancs & Cheshire Division 2

Oswestry 10-14 Wigan

The EAGLES were outgunned on Saturday by a Wigan team they had beaten by four points back in September.

On a heavy pitch where it was clear there were going to be a number of handling errors from both sides early on, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock after nearly half an hour.

Both sides traded penalties but Wigan's loosehead prop, wearing number one, managed to dive into the corner following a big shove from Wigan at their lineout.

The visiting outsider centre assumed kicking duties and managed to land his kick from the touchline to make it 7-0 to Wigan.

Oswestry continued to press Wigan but found it difficult to break their defence line. The added pressure Oswestry imposed on Wigan did make the visitors concede a penalty.

Gareth Hughes made a fine attempt to kick it from over 35 yards out but just hit the post missing by a matter of inches before he had to be taken off by physio Lottie Beard for treatment to his face and was temporally replaced by Liam Williams who came on for the last six minutes of the half.

There was some impressive running by Nikola Nickolov as he tried to get through the line assisted by Hugh Adams and James Roberts but Wigan stood fast.

At the death of the half Oswestry were again given a penalty and this time Connor Blair attempted to make the kick but was unsuccessful on this occasion.

Oswestry were awarded a penalty early in the second half with Rory Kershaw finding touch inside his own half. Blair ran out from the lineout and the ball finally arrived at Nickolov who again showed his speed and skill to find a gap to score, but the conversion was missed to leave it 5-7.

Wigan were reduced to 14 when a player was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on but on 58 minutes, they extended their lead with another converted try to make it 5-14.

Three minutes later, Oswestry, taking advantage of the extra man, hit back through Blair as he crossed the line to score but he missed the conversion to leave it 10-14 as Wigan held on for the win.

On Saturday, Oswestry face Marple for a 2.15pm kick-off. All are welcome to go down to Granville Park and support your local team.