SCRATCH RAIDERS HOLD THE FORT
AT LANCASHIRE

Inverclyde Raiders held on to their top spot in the British Junior Kitted Champions League following a tough afternoon in Wigan.

Despite coming into this latest contest with a much smaller squad that normal having a weakened team through player availability, damage limitation was the main objective for the Scots and to hold onto as much of their four point lead at the top of the league.

They couldn't believe their bad luck when the groupings were drawn and they were to play the PA Knights from London and the Yorkshire Rams, two of the better teams in the league.

More bad luck was to follow when the Raiders quarterback, David Carney got a leg injury on the first play of the first game against the PA Knights, ending his football for the rest of the day.

This left the Raiders to reform, but this wasn't enough to hold the PA Knights back, as they took advantage of being handed the opportunity of beating the Raiders and immediately began exploiting the weak spots.

The Raiders however, were not going to go down without a fight and the defence managed hold the PA Knights to only two touchdowns.

The Raiders offence had nothing left in their box of tricks and couldn't get through the Knights defence to put any points on the score card.

The game ended 12 - 0 to the PA Knights and is the Raiders only second defeat this year.

The game against the Yorkshire Rams was a whole new ball game. The Raiders had a forty five minute wait between their two games and this was all the time they needed to get their act together, good luck seemed to be smiling on them again.

This was confirmed when they won the toss and got first possession of the ball.

What happened next can only be described as pure magic. The Raiders went from neutral straight into top gear putting points on the board in the first play and this
set the tone throughout the entire game.

The Rams were in total shock as they expected to get the same opportunity as the Knights, but the Raiders demonstrated that even when their backs are against the wall their still every bit as dangerous.

The game eventually ended with a massive 50 points on the scoreboard for the Raiders and only 6 points for a stunned Yorkshire Rams squad, with Raiders Chris Brown coming away with the Most Valuable Player award for the game.

The PA Knights went onto win the tournament, beating the Milton Keynes Pathfinders in the final 35 - 21 and the Raiders came home having lost only one point, from their lead leaving them with 3 points clear at the top with only two tournaments to go including the tournament on home ground at the Greenock Battery park on the 28th of August.

Raiders Manager, AL Douglas said later " Don't ask me what happened in the first game against the Knights I don't think anyone on the team has got an answer.”

”Everything was going wrong, our timing was out, our plays were not happening, we weren’t focusing on what we were out there to do.”

“And due to lack of players the boys were having to deal with playing in a variety of different positions, but on top of that the PA Knights are a smart team and they changed their line up and tactics to make the most of our weaknesses.”

“The break we got between the two games was the break we needed and gave us just enough time with boys to get them ready for the vital game against the Rams and get the badly needed point that would make the difference to our position in the league.”

“The PA Knights also done us a favour by beating the Pathfinders in the final, the Pathfinders are sitting just below us in the league and the PA Knights made sure they only closed the gap by one point instead of two.”

“I'm more than happy with the result, it could have been better, but it also could have been so much worse".

The Inverclyde Raiders would like to thank their sponsor Fraoch Security Services Ltd for their continued support.

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