Houghton travel away to hosts West Hartlepool TSDOB for their Durham Northumberland Three clash this Saturday.

Last week saw this week’s visitors, Houghton defeat Chester Le Street 29-0 as they could not keep up with the Houghton attack in the slippery conditions.

Houghton were fired up from the off giving them the opportunity to open scoring early on which was more than necessary with how the weather was prevailing.

Brett Henderson scored first and doubled the points nine minutes later for a second. James Ross edged the first show of dominance as he made an unstoppable break through the defence to score the first converted try with the help of Daniel Bearn’s boot while Marc Willey finished off the first half scoring with an unconverted try. Despite Houghton losing three men to the sin bin between the 39th and 77th minute they held strong to keep Chester off the score board. One more score was put on the board by Ross in the last minute of the game.

Ryan Pink, Head Coach commented on the Chester game saying: “We scored five unanswered tries and kept Chester to a clean sheet- which shows we are building a strong defence as a squad.”

Since the beginning of the season the Dairy Lane men have showed some consistency in results with Richmonshire knocking them off their three consecutive win streak and Hartlepool BBOB seeing the start of the next streak.

This week the visitors look to keep pressing forward as they travel away in spirits of a victory.

Pink added: “I am expecting a hard fought match with the weather starting to change for the worse.”

Following recent results, Houghton have climbed their way into fifth in the table while this week’s competitors sit tenth.

West Hartlepool TDSOB have played seven fixtures so far with only one win under their belt.

The team to hit the road is: Allan Scott, Ryan Main, Matt Marchant, Ian Turnbull, Allan Widdowfield, Anthony Bolton, Adam Reay, Glen Crowther, Stuart Hutchinson, Gary Shepherd, Daniel Bearn, Andy Charlton, James Ross, Brett Henderson, Tom Birtley, Graeme Bennett, Lewis Wilson, Danny Wolfe.

Pink commented: “This week we have minimal changes to the squad.

“However, the changes coming in are all from the injury list we picked up so are welcomed returns and not forced changes.”

The game will take place at Tech Rugby Club, Hartlepool TS24 8QZ for a 2.15pm KO.

By Clarissa Murphy