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Handsworth 17 - 10 Shrewsbury

Handsworth produced probably their best performance of the season on Saturday and ran out 17-10 victors over 2^nd, now 3^rd-placed Shrewsbury in a game that was a complete contrast to when the sides first met earlier on in the season.

When these side locked antlers first time round Handsworth were going through a transitional phase of introducing new players and finding a foothold in a higher league than what they're used to after 2 seasons of successive promotions. That day Handsworth were completely off the pace and were given a torrid time.

As the season has progressed new players have bedded in and the team has gelled more and more from week to week. The results have picked up and they have become a more difficult team to beat.

This injection of 'New Blood' has seen, amongst others, brothers Danny and TJ Clarke come into their own at flanker and at full back respectively. They turned out to be Brothers Grim as far as Shrewsbury were concerned as they both bagged a vital try each to leave the visitors dumbstruck.

Handsworth notched up a few early points through the boot of Paul Rogers but were left rueing missed tackles as Shrewsbury hit back with a try soon afterwards.

The hosts pressed at every opportunity and defended like their lives depended upon it at times with notable contributions from Slack, Luczak and Macey who not only kept Handsworth going forward but also kept Shrewsbury out when a certain try looked on the cards,

TJ Clarke and Slack linked up well just outside the Shrewsbury 22 when Slack fired over a cross-field kick for Clarke to latch onto mid-air to go over in the corner. The conversion was fired over from an impossible angle from Rogers out wide on the right.

Not to be outdone by his younger sibling Danny Clarke also got on the scoring sheet following a lineout close to the Shrewsbury try line. As the ball was tapped back in order for a clearance kick to be made Clarke pounced like a panther to ground the ball for a try. Again Rogers converted sublimely.

Shrewsbury didn't get into the league position they are without haven't a battling mentality and hit back at Handsworth with a driving scrum which eventually lead to penalty try. The conversion was missed from in front of goal which kept the guests at arms length.

Handsworth's resilience was remarkable and was a credit to all involved. But their attack play was met with equally as ferocious defending. The home three-quarters made good use of some clean ball from their forwards but again were thwarted by some fine tackling.

As the game progressed Handsworth did not sit back and hope to defend their way to victory. They pressed on and came close to extending their lead further on a few occasions which showed the confidence that the team in now exuding.

The loss for Shrewsbury and a win for Burntwood see the two sides swap positions between 2^nd and 3^rd places. Handsworth are relishing playing Burntwood on Saturday which is a feeling they probably wouldn't have had a few months ago.

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