Sedgley Park 13pts Plymouth Albion 32: PLYMOUTH will win the league title, of that there is no doubt. Sedgley Park and Orrell seem most likely contestants for the other promotion place, and it is vital that Park return to winning ways at Fylde this weekend.

Plymouth showed their quality from the first whistle and Sedgley were soon under pressure, squandering a chance to clear their line, by missing touch with a penalty. You can't do that against teams as good as Plymouth, and the first try after just six minutes, was the product of forward power and straight, hard running. Flanker Danny Thomas scored unmolested, and stand-off Tim Barlow converted.

Sedgley then had their best period of the half, ten minutes of relaxed and confident rugby, during which Rob Moon kicked two penalties, the second from long-range. Plymouth were off target with a penalty but made immediate amends by pushing Sedgley off their own scrummage ball. Park survived this attack, but the writing was on the wall.

Barlow did extend Plymouth's lead with a simple penalty before Sedgley fell apart in the 15 minutes before the interval. Another scrum against the head led to number eight, Dan Ward-Smith, scoring between the posts, a score that was much too easy for Sedgley's comfort.

The next try was the best of the match and showed all the Plymouth qualities. With backs that battle like forwards, and forwards that can run like backs, the visitors put together a superb team try, scored by centre Russell Thompson and, like the previous one, converted by Tom Barlow. Plymouth almost scored from the kick-off, powerful wing Andy Matchett covering 70 metres before knocking on just short of the line. Sedgley were in some disarray and the low point of their season so far came on the brink of half-time when a weak and badly placed clearance kick allowed Barlow to score unopposed.

At half-time the score was 6-29 and Sedgley were on the brink of a stuffing -- so all credit to Tim Fourie and the team for buckling down to provide a committed second half to be proud of.

For 20 minutes, Sedgley pressed and pressed. Plymouth began to show signs of fallibility which manifested itself in some poor line-out throwing by their chief inspiration, former England hooker, Graham Dawe, and in the sin-binning of prop Peter Risdon.

After 23 minutes, Sedgley got their just reward -- a try by centre Jon Scales after a patient build-up, converted by Rob Moon. Plymouth again demonstrated their forward power with another scrum against the head, a success which led to another Barlow penalty. But there was never any danger of Sedgley being overwhelmed.

Even so, a proud home record of 22 successive league wins had been halted, and the team now has to re-group before taking on Fylde's big pack on Saturday.

SEDGLEY PARK: Peacock, (Hassan), Wilcock, O'Hare, Scales, Morris, Moon, McCormack, Alcock, (Johnson), Keyes, (Treco), Latham, Arnold, Rees, Senior, Yates, Fourie.