THIS was the biggest defeat the Blues had suffered in many a year.
It all started badly when the wheel of fortune seemed to desert them yet again as they found themselves down to 13 men after 11 minutes when first Ian Wynn and then Richard Bradshaw were sin-binned for pretty innocuous offences so early into this local derby.
Already three points down, a Tony Handley penalty for a scrummaging infringement, New Brighton soon knew it wasn't to be their day as the two yellow cards were followed by a third for Tom Mapp on 20 minutes for not retreating 10 metres from a short penalty.
During this period Waterloo took advantage of the Blues' depleted numbers to stretch their lead to 15 points with tries from Jan Van Deventer and Gareth Davies.
Now back to a full team the Blues began to assert themselves and on the half hour a forward drive ended with the Waterloo backs desperately trying to clear their lines and giving away a penalty for crossing. Antony Birley made sure for 15-3.
As half-time approached just when the Blues thought they had got some rhythm back into their game, Jay Stirret was carried off soon followed by Chris Naylor and Phil Buckley. The half-time whistle didn't come soon enough and at 15-3 down there was cause for some optimism as it should have been a lot more.
It took just five minutes of the second half for the referee to find his yellow card again, this time Damian Penisini was binned alongside Waterloo's Les Bone. Of all the sendings-off this was probably the most deserved.
No sooner had the game restarted when a good move from Waterloo found New Brighton's defence wanting and Neil Kerfoot scored a fine try.
New Brighton were struggling now as both Adam Kettle and Damian Penisini were both injured the later replaced by Steve Kelly Kettle was able to continue after some treatment. With 61 minutes gone from a Blues scrum a misunderstanding between Dave Wood and Jon Sewell let Waterloo in for another score by Van Deventer for 25-3.
Despite the reverse the Blues were still pounding away at the Waterloo defence and it came as no surprise when a great driving maul ended with Penisini getting the touch down, Birley converted to make it 25-10.
Well into the last quarter, hard as they tried, the Blues were tiring and some silly defensive lapses let Waterloo in for two further scores by Freeman Payne and Neil Kerfoot, both converted.
Just when a collapse seemed inevitable the Blues amazingly started to throw the ball around, producing some scintillating moves that tore the Waterloo defence to pieces and it was a just reward for their never-saydie attitude for that man Birley to round off a great backs move with the best try of the game, converting it himself to make the scores 39-17.
This was a tough game, the disastrous start for the Blues left them with an uphill struggle that proved to be too much and as tiredness crept in they were eventually beaten by the better side on the day.
* Next week at Hartsfield in the National Division 3: New Brighton v Dudley Kingswinford.
