Culcheth Eagles 30 Woolston Rovers A 26 (after extra time)

AN absorbing Warrington Carlsberg Alliance Cup semi final went the way of Culcheth Eagles as they snatched a golden-point victory over Woolston Rovers A.

A full bloodied 80 minutes and 20 minutes of extra time had failed to split them.

James Wilde went over from dummy half to seal the win win and a place in the final against either Crosfields A or Bank Quay Bulls A at Rylands.

After building a first half lead of 16-0 with tries from Ross Pendlebury, Stu Pirrie and Nathan Bell, Woolston caught Culcheth on the back foot and quickly equalised early in the second half courtesy of tries from Paul Wilson, Richard Bolton and Kurt Whiteley, with Jason Russell adding two conversions.

Wilde converted his own try to move Culcheth six points clear again in the 60th minute.

Rovers refused to lie down and Darren Hill collected his own chip kick but Pirrie’s second try again extended Culcheth’s lead to six points.

Five minutes from time Dan Fearnley powered over in the corner and Rutter landed a pressure kick from the touchline to level the scores.

Rovers almost snatched victory when a 50-metre drop goal attempt from Dominic Ball drifted wide.

Rutter was narrowly wide with a long distance penalty attempt in the first period of extra time but there were no further clear-cut opportunities until the golden-point winning try from Wilde.

Eagles: Chris Moses, Colin Mitchison, Danny Martin, Stuart Pirrie, Danny Maalma, Damon Fishwick, Ian Pirrie, Tom Blohm, Brett Mikalauskas, Andy Thomason, Nathan Bell, Ross Pendlebury, James Wilde. Subs: Matt Buxton, Chris Pleavin, Adam Cooper, Dom Rainford.

Rovers A: Jordan Millington, Richard Bolton, Paul Wilson, Darren Hill, Martin Ball, Dominic Ball, Matt Wilkinson, Steve Dowson, Josh Sudlow, Gareth Dowson, Mark Robinson, Dan Fearnley, Kurt Whiteley. Subs: Jason Rutter, Craig Davies, Richard Potts, Richard Shepherd.