A RESILIENT Oswestry side was rewarded with their first win of the season on the weekend.

After 16 games without a victory, the Eagles took on Marple at Granville Park and shocked the visitors with arguably their best performance of the season.

The match coincided with Ladies day at the club and there was a good group of spectators to cheer the home team on.

Oswestry were keen to impress their supporters and started well taking the ball deep into the visitors 22.

For the best part of the opening 25 minutes, Marple had to defend as Oswestry kept pushing forward with good work from Scott Smith and Ray Jardine.

Finally, after 28 minutes, the deadlock was broken with a move starting when Rosco Jacobs picked up a loose ball which eventually reached Aaron Lindsay who found James Roberts running towards the line to dot down for the first try of the afternoon.

The conversion sailed just wide of the posts and the score went to 5-0.

Marple found themselves in the Oswestry 22 leading up to half-time – an area of the pitch which had been unfamiliar to them for the most part of the game.

A handful of attacks later, the referee blew the whistle for half-time with the score at 5-0 to Oswestry.

Oswestry returned after half-time looking to turn their chances into tries.

They were able to extend their lead moments after the break when Marple conceded a penalty 30 yards from the posts – Noah Chunsi stepped up and converted the penalty to increase the margin to eight points.

Oswestry were denied a second try when the referee deemed Smith’s effort was not grounded.

However, it wasn’t long before they went further ahead through Nikola Nikolov who touched down close to the posts. This left a nice kick for Chunsi to convert the try, taking the score to 15-0.

After the restart, Oswestry were awarded their second penalty of the afternoon after a good run by Aaron Lindsay drew a foul from the visiting defenders.

Chunsi made no mistake again and converted to make it 18-0 to the hosts.

Oswestry stepped off the gas and within a minute of the restart Marple scored a try which they converted making the score 18-7.

As the Oswestry men tired, Marple raised their game further and pushed the hosts back which caused mistakes.

With two minutes left to play and with the extra man advantage, Marple were able to score their second try which they converted to make the score 18-14.

Oswestry managed to hold out under great pressure to secure their first win of the season after a battling performance.

Oswestry will look to pick up a second win next time out on Saturday, March 9 when they host Port Sunlight.