Lucky Lymm hang on

AFTER the comparative cake walk the week before Lymm were aware that Broughton Park would be a different matter altogether and so it proved to be as they clung on for a 7-10 victory.
Still with an outside chance of a play off place the hosts saw a chance to upset the league leaders and Lymm knew that they would haave to be at the top of their game.
Tim Oakes was given his full debut at 2, with Scott Harrison unavailable, and Chris Kinsey selected himself after new signing Davies was injured in mid week. Joint top try scorer Williamson replaced Butler on the wing.
A good start was the message and on three minutes the mercurial Knowles went over for his 14th try of this excellent season. A lovely sweeping passing move with a perfectly timed missed pass from Andy Roberts. 5-0 to Lymm. Knowles had an off day with the boot, missing the conversion and missing a penalty, on 14 mins.
Broughton Park’s speedy winger then equalised on 30 and O’Brien notched the conversion to give the home team the lead at half time at 7-5. Indeed Ronan O’Brien, normally metronomic, missed a further 6 kicks of varying degrees of difficulty during the game.
The restart was scrappy. Lymm fell foul of some bizarre refereeing decisions and were penalised five times in the first 5 mins of the second half. There was a feeling that the first team to score would go on and win and this was the case when Ollie Higginson went over for his 7th try of the season. Not bad for a lad who plays mainly in the second row. Again a lovely ball from Roberts after good work from the sprightly Kinsey.
The rest of the half was about O’Brien’s missed penalties and more and more bizarre decisions by the referee. Young star Mullarkey was binned after being on the field for 90 seconds but even with 14 Lymm’s defence held out. Both Oakes and more latterly Millachip with outstanding turnovers at crucial times.
New boy Oakes had a man of the match performance, mixing brute physicality with the usual challenges of hooking. He said: “I’ve settled in well at Lymm and it’s a privilege to be part of a team and club that is really going places.”
Coach Kinsey, battered and bruised after his first 80 mins for two months, was happy. “Despite continuously being penalised by the ref for reasons not clear to us we stuck to our task and defended with great determination. Being only the second team to beat Broughton Park at their ground this season was a huge step towards our goal.”
Director Of Rugby Richard Boundy added: “The win will send a strong signal to the other teams in the league. Yes we were lucky . O’Brien is one of the best kickers around and its very unusual for him to miss at all ,let alone 6. I do think we were good value for the win though. A couple of seasons ago we would lose the game and blame the ref. Now we get on with it and play with discipline and control. It was very pleasing there was no back chat or descent. Ultimately this is how you win championships!”
Lymm now have 4 consecutive home games knowing that 2 wins will be enough for the title. They entertain Burnage on Saturday, Kick off 3pm.
Team: 1.Danny Bates 2 Tim Oakes 3 Darius Miksys (Keith Broadbent) 4. Ollie Higginson, 5. Lee Pickles 6 Jake Ashall (Sam Mullarkey) 7 Ian Cullinane 8. Mark Sutton (Peter Millachip) 9 Chris Kinsey 10. Andy Roberts 11 Dave Williamson 12 Tom Hughes 13 Adam Fletcher 14 Jack Johnstone 15. Joe Knowles C