Latchford go down after losing three players to injury

LATCHFORD ALBION 28 WEST BANK BEARS 42
LATCHFORD Albion fell to defeat when rivals West Bank took the spoils in an entertaining encounter at the Asics Victoria Park Arena.
The hosts started strongly, and in the opening exchanges, took the lead when wing Owen Nugent crossed in the corner following good hand by half back George Briggs.
West Bank’s response was to hit Albion with a purple patch where they took control with three converted tries in a devastating 10 minute spell.
Adam Wood reduced the deficit for Albion with a well worked try, which was goaled by Chris Griffith.
On 25 minutes, Latchford’s prop forward Ace Jones was dismissed for a head butt, leaving Albion with an uphill struggle.
In a tough first half, Albion lost three players to injury, Hickman ( back), Briggs (shoulder) and Whitehead (knee) leaving only one substitute for the remainder of the game.
With a half time score of 10-18, the first score of the second half was to be pivotal and fortunately it went the way of Albion when a solo try and conversion by Chris Griffiths reduced the deficit to just two points.
Latchford took the lead shortly after when impressive forward Craig Fleming barged his way through two defenders to cross under the posts, Griffiths adding the extras.
West Bank then hit Albion with two quickfire tries to restore the eight point lead they previously held and regain control of the match.
A 90-yard solo effort by Owen Nugent, alongside a further conversion from Briggs, had the score at 28 – 30 with 10 minutes remaining, but any thoughts of an Albion victory were quashed when West Bank’s scrum half dummied his way over to take the game away from the hosts. A final try, on the stroke of full time, gave the scoreline a harsh reflection of an end-to-end game.
Despite the defeat coach Lee Smith was proud of his team’s effort and said: “We played 55 minutes with 12 men and , due to a horrendous day with injuries. I had no substitutes for nearly half of the game. Despite this I am disappointed for the players as the effort was massive in very challenging circumstances and if we had just managed the game a little bit better, we could have, and should have, secured the victory.
“We are competing well at this higher level and today we deserved more than we got, but that’s rugby and we will move on and take the positives from today into our next game when we travel to Shevington Sharks on May 20.”
Unfortunately the debut of Albion’s Alliance side had to be placed on hold when visitors Portico Vine were unable to raise a side. Over 20 players were available for selection to the Alliance squad and the club hope to release details of the next game over the coming days.