Winnington Park 10 Widnes 11
WINNINGTON suffered a second successive blow to their promotion hopes, at Burrows Hill on Saturday.
Beaten last week by struggling Aspull they again crashed to a relegation-threatened side.
Although Mark Warr and Ben Richardson returned, Park were still without the Patterson brothers Mark and Carl, Ian Moriarty, Steve Jones, Jonny Evans, suspended captain Matt Dodd and being without two-fifths of their line-up proved too big a burden.
They still looked strong enough on paper but the lack of familiarity between players meant they did not perform well as a team.
Winnington scored a try through prop Mark Taylor on their first visit to the Widnes 22, Rick Jennings' creating the opportunity through a barging run. Unfortunately this was Jennings last action as he strained a thigh muscle and was replaced by Anthony Murphy and Park had to reshuffle the pack, but only after Ben Barton had added the conversion.
Ben Barton and Phil Glover exchanged penalties and Park led at half time 10-3.
Widnes dominated after the break and number eight Bowles broke from a scrum to cut the deficit to two points.
Glover put Widnes ahead for the first time from a penalty on 70 minutes. It proved the matchwinning kick and shortly after Ben Barton saw his long range attempt drift wide.
It left Winnington needing to regroup quickly if they are not to waste the good work done in the first half of the season, especially with trips to leaders Caldy and second-placed Penrith to come in the next few weeks. They do not have a competitive fixture this weekend.
Park 2nds 58 (Terry Jones 3, Mike Gallimore 2, Graham Staley, Simon Newall, Jeff Leech tries; Gallimore pen, 5 cons) Warrington 0.
Juniors
Park's mini-section hosted Macclesfield and Lymm.
U10s lost to Lymm 3-1 and beat Macc 5-1 (Mark Toleman 3, Oliver Mills 2).
U11s beat Macc 28-0 (Watkins 2, Reynolds 2; Spaven 4 cons) and beat Lymm 35-0 (Alson 2, Sanson, Pym, Farrington tries; Farrington 4 cons).
Sir John Deane's College hit three victories in a row with a 17-10 victory over Bridgewater High School. Tries from Joe Fallon, Dave Burchell and Martin Hooker, along with a conversion from Chris Hepinstall, gave SJDs the edge.
