BIRKENHEAD PARK RFC 25 v DMPRFC 21

Lazarus’s record was in great danger, as Park nearly pulled off a great comeback against Birkenhead Park RFC at the weekend.

Going 19 – 0 down in the first fifteen minutes, away from home, may have been a total catastrophe for other clubs and normally would have spurred the club in the ascendancy on into achieving a high score. But even with the score so one-sided, connections at Park knew that we were not out of it.

How Park managed to allow those points is another matter, but how the comeback was formulated was testament to the belief in themselves that the current group of players exhude.

A dreadful start however, as Park never seemed to shake off the bus journey, until Birkenhead Park had amassed their initial total. Park conceded three tries in that period, two of which were converted, with the home supporters licking their lips at the thought of a large total from their team at Upper Park.

Strangely enough, that was never in the minds of Park players or management, as all that was required was level headedness, calm effectiveness and confidence in their team mates, to ensure that the fight back was sufficient enough to take the spoils.

In the end, when the fight back came, the Birkenhead Park outfit were reduced to mere spectators themselves, as Park amassed 21 points without reply and were looking to add, when the engine unfortunately came off the rails.

The game was slightly spoiled by the lack of administration at the break down, with the official not having renewed the batteries on his offside, handling on the ground and off the feet radar. However, it could be said that both teams suffered from this phenomenon.

Tries through Alan Jones, Ritchie Young and replacement Matthew Lister, together with a couple of penalties by Ritchie Young, looked to have been enough to overturn the shock of the early minutes.

Birkenhead Park were at this stage ‘blowing out of their preverbials’ and ripe for the taking.

However, as we went for the fourth try and obvious win, a forward pass put pay to thoughts of the bonus point and seemed to have a draining affect from that moment onwards.

This seemed to spur Birkenhead Park into one last effort and they managed to conjure two penalties at the death to seal a win in a game that Park should have closed out and the fact that they did not leaves them with only themselves to blame for the early nightmare.

A single bonus point was taken, but in the bigger scheme of things in the league positions, there is no-one romping away.