ST Albans Centurions suffered a 46-10 defeat away at Warrington Wizards on Saturday.

“IT was a game of giving away penalties and poor defence” was how St Albans Centurions manager Tony Bottomley described his team’s third away game on the trot.

It was a disappointing defeat for the visitors, and captain Andy Lake echoed the thoughts of his manager by saying: “This is one game we would all like to forget about. It was a long trip to Warrington, but we can’t blame that. Today we just didn’t gel as a team.

“You cannot make too many mistakes and give away that many penalised high tackles against a very good opposition team and expect to go unpunished. I hope the team have learned from today’s mistakes.”

The Cents travelled to the famous Wilderspool Stadium, once the home of Super League club Warrington Wolves, and now the home to their semi-professional neighbours, Warrington Wizards who are lying second in the Rugby League Conference.

The first 10 minutes was a stop-start affair, with both teams making mistakes, but it was the Wizards who settled down first, running in a series of tries against an unsettled Cents outfit that continued to give away silly penalties with high tackles and basic mistakes.

On the plus side, the Cents did keep the Wizards in their own quarter of the field for long periods of time, but this domination could not be converted into points.

With the score 20 points to nil at the end of the first half, the travelling Centurions fans were hoping the second half would be different. Unfortunately it wasn’t, with the Wizards profiting on Cents’ continuing mistakes of missed tackles, letting the ball bounce in space and giving away silly penalties for more high tackles.

This allowed the Wizards to run in four more tries in the opening quarter. With 20 minutes left, the Centurions found their game in the shape of veteran wing man Russ Kelloway who ran in two tries in a four minute period, one of which was converted from the touchline by Lewis Dempsey. Whilst the game was now much more even, the St Albans boys had left a fight back far too late and Warrington sealed their win with another try 10 minutes from time.

This Saturday, the Centurions play their fourth away game in four weeks when they travel to Nottinghamshire to play the Nottingham Outlaws.