Whitchurch have a golden chance to crank up their promotion challenge in Midlands One West when they put their 100 per cent home record on the line against basement boys Cheltenham North on Saturday.
The Edgeley Park men will be hot favourites to extend their faultless run of results on home soil, not that there’s any danger of complacency creeping in as they set their sights on further progress after breaking into the division’s top three with a late fightback win at Stoke last weekend.
The Reds will have to do without unavailable winger Tom Crank against the Gloucestershire side but his absence is compensated by the likely return of Robin Le Cocq to the back row.
Winning is Whitchurch’s main objective this weekend but club president John Gregory admitted trying to improve the points difference would also come into the thinking assuming the Reds get off to a good start.
Whitchurch are delighted to be riding high and, with six of their remanining nine league games on home soil, there is everything to play for ahead of what promises to be an exciting end to the season.
Whitchurch were pleased to pick up another win last weekend, not that they had it all their own way in succeeding where Arsenal’s footballers failed a day later in tasting victory in the Potteries with a hard earned 15-13 triumph.
Whitchurch started strongly with Henry Hockenhull grabbing a terrific solo try in the fourth minute, breaking from inside his own 22 and showing his paces to surge clear and pave the way for a Danny Nicholas conversion.
A brace of penalties from Steve Talbot cut the arrears to 7-6 at the break before Nicholas responded in kind to edge Whitchurch further clear 14 minutes into the second half.
Stoke responded immediately with winger Glenn Joss going over from a five metre scrum, and with Talbot adding the extras, the north Shropshire men found themselves trailing 13-10 with time running out.
But they refused to panic and, five minutes from the end of a hard fought clash, Whitchurch were rewarded for their late pressure when the ball was recycled back out for centre Mike Gardner to go over wide out to seal victory.
By Stuart Dunn
