n Wilmslow 17

n Alnwick 26

RICK Jones did not mince his words after Wilmslow Wolves' home defeat to fellow promoted side Alnwick on Saturday.

"It wasn’t good enough," said the Wilmslow head coach.

"The desire was missing, we can’t afford to play like that again."

Wilmslow can have no complaints as over the 80 minutes, they were outplayed by the Northumberland side in nearly all departments of the game.

"There was some good play from Ben Day, James Coulthurst, Will Maslen and especially Nick Barker but too many of the others were just off the pace," added Jones.

"There has to be a response at Hull this week."

Any advantage Wilmslow may have thought they held in the set piece play of scrum and lineout proved to be illusory.

Although the scrum was more or less evenly contested, the Northumbrians were able to disrupt much of Wilmslow’s lineout ball to the extent that Wolves lost more on their own throw than they won.

Around the field, the visitors were quicker to the breakdown, stealing no little amount of Wilmslow possession, more aggressive in contact and conducted most of the game in the Wilmslow half of the field.

They were an efficient, well organised team with no obvious weaknesses.

Given the circumstances, it was remarkable that Wilmslow managed to restrict the score line deficit to just nine points, as several clear-cut opportunities in both halves were squandered by the visitors.

Wilmslow hadn’t been out of their own half when number eight Ben Gothorp opened the scoring for the visitors after 15 minutes.

Alnwick continued to dominate play and on the half hour scored a second well worked try when scrum-half Jonny Burn found space to jink over between the posts.

Jones brought Alex Donaldson off the bench and fortunes took a turn for the better as Bob MacCallum first kicked a penalty and then converted a try from Ben Day, who had started the afternoon at full back before moving to the centre after Ethan Harding had to retire with a bang to the head.

Barker, at full back, had a decent 40 minutes but not before he had lost control of a high kick which bounced free in the Wilmslow 22.

It proved fatal as Alnwick grabbed the loose ball and counter attacked to put in centre Frank Hutchinson for their third try and a fourth followed when Gothorp was first to a kick.

A late try from Barker, coming from some imaginative play, was too late to have any bearing on the result.

Four tries to two tells its own story.