» February 4th 2001
» Town 29 v Swinton 20

After the mid-week disaster at Leigh earlier in the week and news of an ever-increasing injury list, the chance of a win against Swinton was looking very distant.

Gary Murdock had appealed for patience and in his words when he was able to field his best team, Town would give game to anyone. The good news started to filter out of Derwent Park on Saturday when it was announced that Gary had nearly a full squad to pick from and the only absentee would be Hitro Okesene.

The journey down to Gigg Lane was in near blizzard conditions and concerns were raised as to whether the game would go ahead. After a few frantic phone calls it was confirmed that the weather conditions in Manchester were not as severe, and that they had only experienced heavy downpours of rain.

Tane Manihera was to make a welcome return from injury for this match and much would depend upon his distribution. The look of the team had a more experienced look about it.

The early exchanges saw Town getting the better of the possession with Jamie Smith and Neil Frazer both going close. It was Swinton who were to get the opening score. A spilled ball had given Swinton possession on half way and after some good work Phil Veivers was able to escape the attention of two tacklers and had a free run-in to open the scoring on 4 minutes. Paul Loughlin added the simple conversion to make the score 6 - 0 to Swinton.

On 12 minutes, after Town had enjoyed some good possession and had obtained good field position. Neil Frazer came close to scoring after closing in on the kick through from Sice, but the defenders beat him to it and kicked the ball dead for a drop out from under the posts.

From the kick out Town again set about attacking the Swinton line. Manihera launched a delightful bomb, which seemed to hang in the air. When it came down it was Anthony Samuel that was there to gratefully collect in the Swinton in-goal area and score. Jamie Smith missed with the conversion attempt.

It looked as though Town had scored again minutes later when Matt Sturm tried to pounce on the loose ball in the corner, but he was ruled to have knocked on.

It was Swinton who register the next score. Swinton were awarded a scrum just inside the Town half. From the scrum the Swinton loose forward Paul Smith collected the ball from the base of the scrum and burst down the blind side and raced in from 40 metres out. Loughlin missed with the attempted conversion to increase the Swinton lead to 10 - 4.

Jamie Smith missed with a penalty attempt after Swinton were caught offside just before half time which meant the score remained at 10 - 4 in favour of the home team.

Town got the start they wanted in the second half. Good handling from Town enabled Jamie Beaumont to burst through the defensive line and go onto score under the posts. Tane Manihera added the conversion to tie the scores at 10 - 10.

The next attack saw Town again get close to the Swinton line and Tane Manihera saw the opportunity and kicked the drop goal to put Town into the lead for the first time in the match.

Once again the Lions bounced back. On 54 minutes the referee decided there had been a knock-on inside the Town 20 metres and gave the scrum to Swinton. From the scrum winger Lee Hudson was able to squeeze in at the corner to score. Loughlin again missed the conversion to make the score 14 - 11 to Swinton.

Sice was at his best and split the Swinton defence and raced through after his own kick. Veivers beat him to it and kicked the ball dead. From the second tackle of the resulting dropout, Sice collected and with three tacklers trying to ground him, some how he managed to reach for the line and score. Tane added the conversion to put Town into 17 - 14 lead.

Again the Lions came back and a mistake in Town's own 20 gave possession to Swinton. Andy Cheetham collected and raced out wide to score in the corner. Mick Nanyn landed the conversion attempt from the touchline to give Swinton the lead 20 - 17.

It was a really big finish from Town as in the last ten minutes both Savelio and Sice both went close. On 74 minutes after an initial break from Beaumont and some great handling, Graeme Lewthwaite collected and raced into the corner to score. Tane Manihera produced a great conversion to give Town a 23 - 20 advantage.

This fixture last season had seen Town take a late lead only to have it snatched in the dying second after a short Swinton kick-off. The Travelling faithful were screaming to watch for the short kick off, a feeling of déjà vu seemed to descend. Amazingly Swinton elected to kick deep in the Town half.

The tactic now was to run out the six and kick deep into the Swinton half. Swinton were trying to get back into the Town half and a spilled ball gave possession back to Town. Craig Rumney took the ball spotted a gap, sliced through the defence and on to score his first senior try under the posts. Tane Manihera added the conversion to make the final score Swinton 20 Town 29.

Teams:-
Town: Jamie Smith, Neil Frazer, Steve McGrady, Leigh Smith, Graeme Lewthwaite, Tane Manihera, Mickey Horner, Lokeni Savelio, Carl Sice, William Blackburn, Matt Sturm, Anthony Samuel, Stuart Hoyles
Subs: Fata Sini, Matthew Tunstall, Craig Rumney, Jamie Beaumont

Swinton: Andy Cheetham, Ade Mead, Mick Nanyn, Paul Loughlin, Matt Bateman, Phil Veivers, Kelvin Peet, John Paul Doherty, Rob Barraclough, Lee Hansen, Phil Cushion, Carlo Napolitano, Paul Smith
Subs: Phil Waring, Ryan Stazicker, Lee Hudson, Robert Russell.

Referee: Ronnie Laughton (Barnsley)
Attendance: 630