A free running game, full of good continuity, pace and support achieved a 55-14 victory for Stockport, securing the League title with 4 games in hand. However this group will not be satisfied unless they complete a clean sheet, with difficult away fixtures at Kendal, Douglas Isle of Man and Penrith and a home game against Vale of Lune to complete the season. to come. The visitors from Birkenhead Park made a good start and had the territorial advantage for the first 20 minutes before Stockport gained control. Park scored two tries, one towards the end of the first half, and the other with the final play of the match as they finished by keeping Stockport under pressure for the last 5 minutes. As we have come to expect this was a whole team performance and it was good to see the ball being moved so much. with 9 tries and 5 conversions by Ewan Holt the standard for the last four games has been set very high.

Despite early pressure by Birkenhead Stockport created a wonderful try on 8 minutes, Holt intercepted a pass in his own 22 and fullback, Callum Owen received the ball via Dom Sheratte and made an excellent jinking run into the Park 22 and his long pass gave wing Jack Martin a run in for the try. There was more pressure by Park but the defence was solid and the pack pushed Park off their own scrum, a penalty was awarded and from the resulting scrum a drive had lock Matt Lawrowitsch touching down for 12-0 with the conversion. The visitors made a huge clearance kick to be awarded a line out 5 metres from the Stockport line and they scored with a drive for 12-7, with the conversion. Simon Green picked up from a ruck on halfway and somehow shrugged off all the Park defenders to run in and score, Holt was on target for 19-7 at half time.

With the game having been relatively close Stockport moved into a dominant mood and after the Park lock was yellow carded for too many team penalties a scrum under the posts had the ball moved left and Dudley Southern had an easy run in on the wing. Ed Poulson caught the kick off and his powerful run was supported by Sheratte, who found scrum half Ali Green on hand to run in the try in for 29-7. With Stockport having lots of possession and moving the ball well a scrum was awarded near the Park posts, Simon Green tapped the penalty that was awarded at the scrum and Poulson was there to run in, with Holt’s conversion the score had moved to 36-7 within 10 minutes of the start of the half. Birkenhead had a brief spell of pressure with a line out on the Stockport 5 metre line but Stockport held the maul up for the turnover. As the game went into the final quarter Holt kicked ahead and following up collected the ball and ran in for his try, which he was unable to convert and the lead was 41-7. S Green taped another penalty close to the Park line and stretched to get the touch down under the post, Holt added the extra two and Stockport were just short of 50. From the restart there was more flowing rugby from the home side and replacement Nick Coupland scored for Holt to take it to 55-7. But the visitors were not finished and with pressure drew a stream of penalties against Stockport to finish with a drive over the line to make the final score 55-14

With a week off before the final four games the players will have a chance to celebrate their title before getting down to work to seek that unbeaten season.