LONGTON will be keeping their fingers crossed that conditions are more favourable for rugby this weekend.
Longton have suffered a frustrating stop-start run of matches since the National League Three Midlands programme resumed after Christmas.
Their January 4 trip to South Leicester was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch – and an attempt to re-stage the match last weekend also fell foul of the elements.
Longton also saw their home encounter with Bournville, on January 25, called off after the visitors refused to play.
Longton and the referee were both happy with the state of the Trentham Fields pitch, but the Bournville camp believed it was not fit to play.
That has left them having played just two matches since the turn of the year, with a 17-6 home defeat by Sutton Coldfield being followed up with a 19-3 success at winless Bedford Athletic.
And Longton could well fear that their lack of match action may well come back to haunt them this weekend when they hit the road to take on table-toppers Broadstreet.
The leaders won 37-14 in the reverse fixture and have opened up a one-point gap at the summit over Nuneaton.
However, the battle for the one guaranteed promotion place and the play-off spot appears to be a four-horse race.
Old Halesonians, in third, and fourth-placed Sutton Coldfield are within eight points of the top as the race to reach National Two starts to intensify.
SANDBACH head to Lincolnshire to play Scunthorpe aiming to move further clear of relegation trouble.
Sandbach were inactive last weekend because of the break in league fixture due to the start of the RBS 6 Nations.
However, they could sit back and watch the action with a sense of pride after the previous week’s 38-7 victory over second-from-bottom Syston.
With either three or four teams expected to be relegated – depending on how the annual league reshuffle pans out – Sandbach are aware they can ill-afford to rest on their laurels.
They are now fifth-from-bottom, but just a point clear of both Lymm and Scunthorpe in the battle to avoid being one of the teams to drop down.
So a win – or even better a bonus-point victory – will be at the forefront of their minds on Saturday against a Scunthorpe side who also need the points to ease their fears.
Sandbach’s win against Syston brought to an end a run of three successive defeats, but with some tricky fixtures on the horizon, they’ll be keen to establish some daylight between themselves and the danger zone.
South Leicester and Sutton Coldfield lie in wait over the next couple of weeks, which present stern challenges to Sandbach.
Scunthorpe, though, appear to have found some belated form to give their survival prospects a shot in the arm.
They’ve won four and lost two of their last six matches – although one of those losses was to high-flying Old Halesonians.
Article source: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Brilliant-Bath-Rugby-slay-Newport-Gwent-Dragons/story-20431308-detail/story.html
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