3rd December 2011
 
Warley 17 Essington 24                  League game
 
Essington travelled to Warley for this key league game with their influential Captain Nick Brittain injured and unable to play. Ben Richards took over as captain on the day.
It was an important fixture with Essington having to draw on the strength of the club, placing several new players in the side, with Luke Adams, Chris Hilton and Ross Steadman coming into the side all playing a major part.
The game started off in our favour with Essington dictating the tempo of play. With a break on the left wing Wayne Nicklin broke through and with a neat grubber kick back infield, Fran Chandler collected the ball and scored on seven minutes, then converted. A great start to the game. It transpired that both teams were employing the same tactics of driving forward play which nullified the game.
This was effective for Warley as they scored twice in succession with one conversion making the score 12 – 7.
Realising we needed to open up the game Essington changed tactics and began to run ball wide. This had an immediate effect with Wayne Nicklin scoring a try on 37 minutes. Score at half time was 12 -12.
 
The second half saw Essington take control of the game but were unable to convert possession into points. The inevitable happened after great patience and much interpassing, with Oliver Nicholls scoring on 65 mins. Converted by Fran.
There then followed a controversial passage of play which saw Warley break out of their own 22m with Essington players caught in the wrong half as Warley charged down the left wing, evade several tackles and score. The score was now 17 -19.
This effectively galvanised the Essington team who then dominated possession until eventually, Nick prior scored a marvellous wingers try, which was unconverted. This made the score 24 – 17 and secured the victory.
 
This was a great club effort today, travelling away with a changed side. Everyone pulled together and helped by working as a team. Some passages of play were extremely exciting to watch and the number of chances created were not reflected in the score. Overall it showed improvement on previous league games and a positive indicator for the club, not just the first XV.
 
Man of the Match was Wayne Nicklin.
 
Essington are away next week to Wheaton Aston & Penkridge in the Cup Aldridge.