Its a win which moves West up to third in the table but there is still an 80-minute performance waiting to come out of this team. In patches there was some excellent rugby and some of the tries were well crafted but handling mistakes proved costly again and against better sides West will not get away with the errors and still win the game.

The defence again looked good and West can take a lot of encouragement going into next weeks derby with Rovers having enjoyed much the better of the early season form. But when it comes to derbies we all know better than to look at the form book and it will certainly be a fiercely contested game come Saturday.

West started the scoring early with a Martin Todd try created by Davy Tighe's break along the touchline and had the better of the opening exchanges. With around 20 minutes gone Jon Boatman stretched in after Tighe and Lambert had engineered a break from half way to double the lead.

Marcus Rutter pulled a penalty back for Park on the half hour but a fly-past by the Red Arrows just before half time must have inspired the visitors as a excellent break from Aaron Myers gave Gavin Painter some room to run and he raced in to score and leave Moss an easy conversion to make the half-time score 17-3.

The hosts came back well after the interval and a couple of penalties allowed them to move play in to the West 22. After a good lineout take and maul rolled up to the line Tom Heenan dived in to score with Rutter converting to reduce the deficit to a single score.

Despite enjoying more territory and possession West struggled to find more points to put the game beyond Park with handling errors all too often the cause of missed opportunities. The key moment came after 58 minutes when the referee sin-binned try scorer Heenan for persistent infringements and a scrum two minutes later was about to lead to a pushover try when the ball was killed and referee Halford awarded a penalty try.

The score finally gave West the breathing space they needed and it proved to be a long last 20 for Park who clearly lacked some ball carrying forwards to get across the gain line on a regular basis. Myers finished of an excellent passge of play with a try on 70 minutes after Paul Moss had utilised forwards and backs well through several phases eventually allowing Peter Hodgson to feed the blonde haired youngster who powered over from 10 meters or so under the posts.

The game was rounded off with Painter grabbing his second try, touching down just inside the left corner flag after a scrum was won against the head and quick hands from Jon Boatman and Tighe made the space.

All in all it was a good afternoons work for West and continues the good start to the 2006-07 campaign with still the potential to play a lot better. There are tougher games ahead though but no player or supporte will be looking much further forward than next Saturday and the first chance to claim bragging rights over town rivals Rovers. With the Friagemen getting their first win over Durham City today it sets things up nicely for a great game.



West: Todd, Painter, Edwards, Hodgson, Lambert (Hare), Moss, Tighe, Car, Sawyer, Norris (Cullinane), Rudd, Davies, D Boatman, Myers, J Boatman.
Sub not used: Henderson

Tries: Todd, J Boatman, Painter 2, Penalty, Myers
Cons: Moss 3

Percy Park: Singleton, Blackburn, D Griffiths, Walton, Rutter, Baldwin, Biggins, Dunn, Purdy, Fidler, C Griffiths, Donald, Heenan, Dixon
Subs: Turnbull, Blakey, Hogg

Try: Heenan
Con: Rutter
Pen: Rutter
Sinbin: Heenan

Referee: Will Halford [Northumberland Society]