CREWE & Nantwich got their season back on track with victory over Wallasey on Saturday.

It was a welcome win after defeat at St Edward's Old Boys but coach Nick Price was disappointed his men didn't get out of second gear.

The team is missing some key first-team players but still sit in third place in the table.

Price said: 'The side is still disrupted by injuries to several key players and it was, in fact, the first time this season that we were able to select an unchanged back line.

'I had to draft in back row veteran Mark Gamage and prop Paul Rick-etts, playing at second row, who both played well to heap more pressure on the players holding those positions.'

Crewe got off to the best possible start when, with only 25 seconds on the clock, open side Dave Germaine followed up an attempted drop goal by Rory Drysdale to catch the ball on the bounce and go over for a try.

The strong wind pulled Drysdale's conversion wide of the posts. However, he struck a penalty six minutes later to give Crewe an 8-0 lead.

Crewe continued to press but were unable to put any meaningful moves together and a missed tackle on the wing gave Wallasey a simple run-in to reduce the arrears. Again the wind proved to be the winner on the conversion.

The half was finished off by a further Drysdale penalty on 40 minutes to give Crewe a narrow 11-5 lead.

Just after the restart, Drysdale increased the lead with another well-struck penalty.

Crewe had several chances to kill the game off but they were unable to convert their efforts. It was Drysdale who finally did it when he hacked through a spilled ball on the half-way line, followed the kick up himself with another well-placed tap of the foot and eventually outpaced the Wallasey defence to score an unconverted try.

Crewe & Nantwich 2nds beat Broughton Park 24-19 and the 3rds defeated Caldy 25-0. The first team's next game is away at Sefton on December 16.

Old Yardleians 14 Sandbach 40:

Another comprehensive win by Sandbach keeps them clear at the top of the league.

Tries from Dan Massey (3), Nick Jerman, Tim Jones and Tim Oakes as well as five conversions by Lee Pickles put the game beyond doubt.

After a scrappy start, Yardleians missed a penalty whichSandbach punished on 24 minutes, when Tom O'Brien made a great break and cleverly slipped a pass to Nick Jerman to score despite being tackled.

On 30 minutes, a scrum on the half-way line allowed a blind side break and unleashed Tim Jones, who beat a man and stepped inside to score under the posts for another simple Lee Pickles conversion to make the score 21-0.

On 55 minutes, Yardleians again converted and brought the score to 26-14. Sandbach missed a kickable penalty on 70 minutes but then scored the best try of the match.

After three phases of play and a good passing move with Tom O'Brien breaking clear, Andy Lee passed to skipper Oakes on 22m for him to beat a tackle and burst over. Pickles converted to take it to 33-14.

The final score came on 73 minutes, when Massey dummied and broke inside past 2 players to score his hat-trick. Pickles again converted to take it to 40-14.

Sandbach host bottom side Burnt-wood on Saturday.