Tigers boss hopes for a repeat of last year's escape act (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Tigers boss hopes for a repeat of last year's escape act

9:00am Thursday 10th January 2013 in Sport

By Neil Bonnar

SEDGLEY Tigers will call upon their experience of beating the drop as they look to survive in National League One this season.

The Whitefield men dropped deeper into relegation danger when they lost a crucial home clash with Tynedale last weekend.

The thrilling encounter could have gone either way, but Sedgley ultimately found themselves on the receiving end of another disappointment in a season of setbacks as the visitors edged it late on to ease their own fears of going down.

The result leaves the Park Lane men 12 points adrift of the safety of fourth bottom, but team manager Geoff Roberts says his club has been in this situation before.

“We’ve had our ups and downs in the past,” he said.

“We’ve had good times and bad times, and at the moment we are going through a difficult period.

“We’ve got to keep going and try to chase down the teams above us.

“We targeted Tynedale before, now we’ve got to target Wharfedale because they are the team immediately above us by 12 points.”

Tigers know what it takes to come through a relegation scrap, having stayed up by the skin of their teeth in successive years before last season when they secured their place in the division a comparatively comfortable three games before the end of the campaign.

But they will have to do it without Paul Ralph in the medium term after the second row suffered knee ligament damage during last weekend’s game.

And they will also wait for a fitness check on Garth Dew before this Saturday’s trip to London to face Richmond. He took a blow to the kidneys and suffered a knock to the injured knee which sidelined him for 12 months until recently.

Against Tynedale, three penalties from Matt Riley accounted for all the points for Tigers who were leading 6-5 at the interval and were only 12-9 behind until conceding a converted try five minutes from time.