WILMSLOW Wolves are now in a two-horse race with Northwich for a play-offs place.

Saturday’s 26-5 success at Blackburn knocked the hosts out of the reckoning.

Wilmslow are third, eight points adrift of Northwich with a game in hand, but with both sides still to face runaway leaders Vale of Lune there could still be a twist.

All that Wolves can do to help their cause is win their remaining three matches, starting with Saturday’s home date with a Manchester side potentially needing a win to be absolutely certain of avoiding relegation from North One West.

There was an air of quiet satisfaction in the Wilmslow camp after the Blackburn win.

Rarely had Wolves been seen playing as well as they did.

Not only did they play like a side that would be capable of holding its own at the next level, but they also played as though that’s where they want to be.

“If we played like that every week we’d beat every side in this league, home and away, every week,” said coach Rick Jones.

After a few early wobbles the scrum stabilised, Adam Hewitt, Max Wortley and Seb Pemberton were masters in the lineout and the rest of the pack, with hooker Alex Donaldson prominent in just about every phase, gave better than it got around the field.

Ethan Harding stood out in the centre and there were good moments from George Witham, Will Maslen and James Coulthurst.

There was one head-on try-saving tackle from full-back Ben Day in the second half that stood out but really there were only a handful of line breaks by the home side in the face of a stubborn Wolves defence.

And mention has to be made of scrum-half Sean Street, whose play has made the difference in recent weeks.

At Northwich four weeks ago, his try in the last play of the game turned a losing situation into a bonus-point win.

Against Warrington last week he scored at the death to give Wolves another five-point win and at Blackburn he crossed twice, his second try just on full-time giving Wolves another five league points.

Witham injected a bit of pace and venom into the Wolves midfield play with a piercing run to disrupt the Blackburn defensive line and when the ball was quickly recycled right winger James Coulthurst found the space to break through and release Street for the opening score.

The home side hit back with their only score but it was only short relief as Day timed a run to perfection to take a flat pass at pace to slice through and score between the posts.

Alex Taylor broke from the base of a scrum and after several drives second row Max Wortley got the touchdown.

Street took an inside pass and set off through a gap for the final score.