Fortress Littlemoor Remains Intact

Clitheroe's penultimate league outing of the season left them atop Division 3N, but as to whether they will be there after the final game on Saturday is only partly in their own hands.
Aspull and Vale of Lune are also in the hunt for the two promotion places. And as Clitheroe visit Vale this weekend and Aspull play bottom side Leigh it doesnt take a genius to realise that only a win will suffice at Powderhouse Lane.

However that's in the future, and before kick off the home team knew the had to win this game to stay in the hunt. With a fairly settled squad this season, the two enforced changes brought the experience of Martin Lafrancechina in at full back and Adam Penney into the middle of the front row at hooker.

Clitheroe managed to loose the reciprocal fixture at Oldham on the opening day of the season, by just one point, and were desperate to make amends.
The team have come on massively since September and are now, though not quite the finished article, a much more rounded and fully formed team – team being the important word. Not a collection of individuals but a collective where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Oldham fielded a bulky looking side and it seemed like the pack would be in for a torrid afternoon, but it didn't take long for Clitheroe to dispel that notion scoring four unanswered tries in the first 40 minutes.

Inside 10 minutes diminutive centre Joe Weld-Blundell had darted over to open Clitheroe's account. The first of his three for the afternoon.
Oldham struck back with a penalty [5-3] before Marco Vaghetti cancelled this out with one for the Littlemoor men.[8-3]

Then Clitheroe started to hit their straps and played some of their best rugby of the season. If it was the dry ground,for once, or the incentive of the final home game of the season, who knows...or cares.

Some of the inter-passing and support play between backs and forwards was breathtaking. The ball moved freely from wing to wing and after a typical passage of play starting from inside their half, prop Will Dickenson defied front row union rules to cut a lovely line to dive over. [13-3]

Next it was that man J W-B to grab one. Not one of his usual ones but a closer range job in heavy traffic, dotting down in the corner. [18-3]

Lafranceschina wrapped up a splendid first half for the maroons with a long range try of his own. Receiving the ball inside his own half, he skipped out of a few tackles and swerved and jinked round a few more to score under the posts. Vaghetti converted to put Clitheroe in charge 25-3 at the break.

The need for a solid start to the second half was impressed, in the huddle, to prevent any suspicion of an Oldham come back.

The town team seemed to have taken that on board when Weld-Blundell completed his hat-trick, being on the receiving end of a good break from wing man Chris Stewart, who kept the move alive excellently.
Marco Vaghetti on hand with the extras and with a penalty a short time after to put Clitheroe well in command [35-3]

Oldham, to their credit, did not capitulate and began to ask serious questions of the home defence. After laying siege to the Clitheroe line for what seemed like hours to the watching faithful, the maroons just could not clear their lines. Eventually the line was breached when the Oldham flanker skipped over for a try for the visitors.[35-8]

With the full time whistle beckoning Clitheroe regained their ascendancy and were in full control by the time they delivered the coupe de grace. From a five metre line out a well worked move -straight from the training paddock- saw Garth Spencer scoot home for a well deserved try. Vaghetti wrapped it up with the conversion, for a very satisfactory afternoon.

So Clitheroe remain unbeaten at home for the 2015-16 season and with one league game remaining it has built to an exciting conclusion this weekend. The lads can do it if they reproduce the form of the first half in this match, but only the correct preparation will do for the grand finale.