Eccles 22 Ashton on Mersey 31

ASHTON continued on the winning trail as they beat Eccles 31-22 in a friendly clash on Saturday.

The Banky Lane side started with their usual early gusto, with second row Mike McCoy gaining useful yards for the team.

The driving strength of the forwards soon won them a penalty, which was duly slotted in the home side's bottom left hand corner by stand off Mike Mills.

The forwards then obliged with a good lineout and drive from which flanker Tim Hinsley bagged the points.

Ashton followed up with a speedy move across the backline which saw fullback Darren Moroney gather a long pass at speed that carried him past two defenders to set up an Ian Teasdale try in the corner.

Eccles rallied and twice nearly breached the Ashton line but in the end had to make do with a converted penalty.

But the Ashton forwards were having the better of the loose exchanges and good close play round the pack brought another two tries from Tim Hinsley.

Some uncharacteristic mishandling from Ashton let the home side back in just before the break.

Skipper Des Lineham was making a real impact at No 8 with frequent 20 yard plus runs and despite the forwards' superiority, Ashton were unable to secure a lineout defending five yards out.

This gave Eccles possession and another seven points to take the score to 17-24.

Ashton did well in defence against sustained pressure from the home side, which was magnificently relieved by a 20-yard burst from Peter Lineham backed up by Tim Hinsley.

Having survived one onslaught the side then fell to a blisteringly swift counter from the home team, which exploited an unguarded Ashton blind side.

At 22-24 the game could have gone either way, but a late converted try from scrum half Mike McCarthy gave victory to Ashton.