BIRKENHEAD PARK will be glad of a break this coming weekend as their run of bad luck shows little sign of coming to an end.
Park were again missing key men for their trip to Cumbria on Saturday and came a heavy cropper against a side which had won only once previously this season.
Scoring chances were few for the Wirral side. They were still in with a shout when trailing 7-0 at the interval to a Stephen Stoddart try and conversion.
But after the break they fell apart somewhat and defended badly. Aspatria ran in five more tries via Alex Dobie (2), Mark Richardson, Lee Tinnion and Mike Tinnion with Stoddart on the mark with four more sions.
Too many players performed badly on the day and there will need to be some improvement if they are to get a better result at home to Morley on Saturday week in their last outing of the year.
Ben O'Rourke emerged with credit and Phil Cottle looked useful when going on as a replacement in the second period
The influential Ian Kennedy saw a specialist last week concerning his hand injury picked up in a five-a-side match. He could be out for some weeks yet.
Skipper Chris Planchant is still some way from a comeback along with others but on the credit side Duncan Meehan has returned to the first team scene after 18 months out of the game with a back problem.
Park are now in the bottom half of the table and could face a relegation dog-fight in 2004 unless the outlook improves considerably. conver-At least they will get another two-week break after the Morley encounter.
