This Sunday @ DVS, 3pm ko.

Important we get back to winning ways in the league after the disappointing display at Whitehaven. Few selection headaches for Tubbs after some good performances vs Leigh East, albeit against modest opposition.

Eagles 42-10 Barrow.

Att: 953

Barrow are a very poor team , so Charlie is going for a Seagulls victory , the score being Seagulls 44 v Barrow 10 , not much of a crowd , though ,Charlie knows .

Well the second half was a lot better than the first, Barrow deserved to go in level at half time. But in the end a decent win for us once we started playing the ball quicker etc in the second half. Never quite felt comfortable though

First half was a really poor game. Their second try was one of the worst we've ever conceded. Coach killer. Much better second half though, played them off the park and picked them off as they tired.

Charlie knew

, Mike Harding used to say "Its hard being a Cowboy in Rochdale ", well it aint no fun being a Leyther at the moment , enjoy it you Seagulls .

Excellent 2nd half performance but 1st half maybe best forgotten.

Eagles: Laulu-Togagae; Finigan, Yere, Armstrong, Taulapapa; Walker, Brambani; Roche, Henderson, Stringer, Knowles, Staugheir, Hirst. Subs: Davey, Esposito, Garside, Green.
Tries: Yere, 20, 42, Hirst 25, Walker,55, Stringer 53, 62, Brambani 73, Laulu-Togagae 78. Goals: Brambani 6/8.

Raiders: Backhouse; McGilvray, Low, Wiper, Clay; Finch, Casey; Butler, Mossop, Dawson, Harrison, Kurt Haggerty, Toal. Subs: Nicholson, Whitehead, Brennan, Mattew Haggarty.
Tries: Harrison 31, Haggerty 40, Wiper 58. Goals: Haggerty 3/3.
Referee: Jamie Leahy. Penalties: Sheffield 9 Raiders 6
Attendance: 1,177.

MATCH STATS

Penalties:Awarded to Sheffield:
14 min: Holding down; 23 min: shoulder charge; 37 min: off side; 38 min: ripping; 47 min: high late tackle; 53 min: kicked out on the full; 55 min: ripping; 61 min : use of elbow and ripping; 70 min holding down.

Penalties awarded to Barrow:
8 min: not square; 35 minicon_surprised.gifff-side; 50 min: high tackle; 57 mmin: ripping; 65 min: tipping player

Scoring sequence: 6-0; 12-0; 12-6; 12-12..HT
5 min Misi Taulapapa forced into touch inches from the try line. With two penalties and a substitution before the first try scored by Menzie Yere under the posts and Dominic Brambani converts easily. 26 mins Joe Hirst gets over the line and Dominic Brambani converts again. This passage of play was after a very pedestrian 20 odd mins where both sides made many silly/careless mistakes with Eagles being the ones throwing the advantage away on far too many occasions, by dropping passes, poor decision making and general “schoolboy” errors. Sheffield could have scored at least 5 times before Menzie made the breakthrough. Raiders kept plugging away until the 31st minute when Liam Harrison broke the line for a well taken try. Kurt Hagggarty made a successful conversion. The following 9 minutes were similar to the first 20, and not particularly entertaining. Raiders were tackling well and their defence remained solid, and they made several forays towards the Eagles line. With 20 seconds left on the clock Eagles won the scrum and only had to use their 6 tackles or more simply, keep hold of the ball, yards from their try line, but Patch Walker tried a clearing kick on the second tackle, which was expertly charged down, and picked up by Kurt Haggarty with 5 seconds left and he fell over the try line to score a deserved try for the Raiders. He successfully converted his own try to bring the half time to a close at 12 points all. The second half started at a much better pace with the Eagles playing into the wind. Menzie took on the Raiders defence and powered through to score his 2nd try of the afternoon, 14th of the season, which was unusually missed by Dominic Brambani from close to the posts. Personally I believe a miscalculation of the strength of the wind was the reason as the ball failed to even reach the posts. 10 mins later, after some deft handling, Patch Walker broke through a scored Eagles 4th try on 51 mins. I mistakenly said “I can't see Dom missing this!” He managed to hit the near upright from in front of the posts. Sheffield had stepped up a gear or two and the power of Mitch Stringer took him over the whitewash to claim the first of his tries, on 53 mins., which brought up 300 points scored for the Eagles in his career. This time Brambani made no mistake in converting. Sheffield were now finding their rhythm, with much improved ball control but Raiders were thinking differently and Wiper scored the Raiders third and final try. Again Haggarty stepped up and coolly slotted over his third conversion. This appeared to give the Eagles the kick they needed and Mitch went on a power run to score his 2nd of the day. Once again Brambani slotted over the necessary conversion.. Raiders dug in and stopped Sheffield scoring on every move. Some heavy tackles went in and eventually the ball was passed out to Brambani who scored a try of his own . He successfully made the score up to 6 and Eagles had a 20 point gap. To end the half, with less than 2 mins left QLT added to his season's tally of 8 and had now scored 64 tries in 64 matches. Brambani finished the afternoon off with another fine goal. Seconds were left on the clock, so Sheffield stuck to the game plan, did nothing silly and held onto the ball until the final whistle went.

Replacements: Eagles
Time - On - Off
20 - Green - Roche
28 -Davey- Henderson
33 - Espositov -Stringer
33- Garside - Hirst
50 - Stringer - Green
? - Hirst - Straugheir
? - Roche - Knowles
? - Henderson - Davey
? - Green - Esposito
Replacements: Raiders
Time - On - Off
20 - Brannan - Butler
22 - Whitehead - Dawson
26 - Nicholson - Mossop
50 - Dawson - Whitehead
? - Mossop - Finch
? - Brennan - Dawson

SPONSORS Man of Match: Mitch Stringer
Club 300 Man of Match: Menzie Yere
View From Stand MoM: Mitch Stringer, Carlton Roche
Raiders MoM: Kurt Haggerty