MANCHESTER 13, SEDGLEY PARK 5: SEDGLEY Park RUFC were dealt a double blow at Grove Park - their second successive pre-season defeat and a bad injury to new signing Danny McGee.

The defeat the Tigers can live with, but a broken leg suffered by fullback McGee, signed from Halifax RUFC, means the club will be without his services until possibly Christmas.

Fortunately Arno de Jager, first choice fullback for most of last season who had been struggling with an ankle injury of his own, looks to be near to match fitness as the club's inaugural National One campaign approaches ever nearer.

"It was a blow to lose Danny like that, he's broken his fibula and he'll be out for a while. But I had a chat with him on the phone, I told him it's not the end of the world and we'll do everything we can for him, he's a tough kid," said player-coach Tim Fourie.

"As for our overall performance, I was quite happy, obviously we'd have liked to have won and I wasn't happy with the refereeing, he missed so much off-the-ball stuff it was unbelievable.

"But we had enough possession and territorial advantage to win, we just didn't use it.

"Our biggest problem at the moment is composure. Instead of forcing the pass two metres from the try line we should be be taking it in, re-cycling and going through a couple more phases, that way we'd either score or get a penalty. We're going to have to develop that composure over the next two weeks, but overall I was quite pleased."

It was a tight game, with the home side determined to spoil the play at every opportunity and catch the Tigers on the break, which they did twice.

Manchester took the lead in the 12th minute when Andre Wilson put over a penalty from just eight metres out, to make it 3-0. But Sedgley hit back five minutes later.

Park won a scrum 10 metres out from the home line and Fourie drove the ball forward, it was then fed out by Dave McCormack to Carlos Hassan, who in turn fed centre partner Ian Voortman, and he crashed through the Manchester defence from close range for the opening try. Blair Feeney, the Tigers' new Kiwi stand-off missed the conversion attempt.

Unfortunately in the build-up to the move McGee suffered a serious leg injury and after prolonged on-field treatment was moved to the touch line, put in an ambulance and taken to hospital, where a broken leg was diagnosed. He has since undergone an operation to plate and pin the break.

Shortly afterwards Sedgley were temporarily down to 13 men, with McGee off and prop Huw Thomas receiving treatment. However Thomas recovered and Ross Bullough replaced McGee, going out on to the right wing berth, with Jon Feeley taking over at fullback.

The play swung from end to end, with Sedgley awarded a string of penalties within goal kicking range, but the Tigers decided to use them to gain ground and set-up line-outs close to the Manchester line, but they couldn't turn the pressure into points, dropping passes at the wrong time.

Four minutes from half-time they were punished again when a well worked cross-field move by Manchester from left to right resulted in second row Alan Marsh going over in the right hand corner. Wilson was unable to improve with the conversion attempt but the home side went into the break with an 8-5 lead.

The Tigers made a number of half-time changes and they took time to gel.

Seven minutes after the restart Tigers' scrum-half McCormack was yellow-carded for deliberately knocking the ball out of his opposite number's hands, when it appeared to everyone that the Manchester player had simply dropped it.

That decision put the Sedgley outfit at a distinct disadvantage, which was to prove decisive.

Eight minutes later Sedgley won a scrum 10 metres out from their own try line, but with no scrum-half to tidy things up Manchester pounced and No 8 Matt Mackenzie snaffled up the loose ball and managed to scamper over the line for a try. Again Wilson was unable to add the conversion.

Apart from a couple of scares created by Manchester making the most of half chances, Sedgley had the majority of possession and territorial advantage but couldn't turn it into points.

Time after time they had opportunities from line-outs and scrums within the Manchester 22 but couldn't get the final pass out to make it count.

Sedgley face their final pre-season fixture this Saturday when they travel to Blundellsands to take on National Two new boys, Waterloo (kick-off 3pm).

Then it's the big time, with Plymouth Albion the visitors to Park Lane on Saturday September 4, to open up the 2004-2005 National One season.