Our visit to Rainford would be the first of two road games to start our 2006-2007 season.

After a summer of changes that included the full time arrival of Oldham Spindles team mates Ian Brown and Matt Thompson, plus the return of former Saddleworth star, Ryan Curley, confidence was reasonably high in the Titans camp.

We started out in a man to man with Adam Smith and James Burns in the back court and Ryan Curley, Adrian Willey and Matt Thompson at the forward spots. The game was pretty evenly paced from the get-go and we both had our fair share of turnovers and fouls.  There was only a basket in it into the second quarter as the lead swung from one team to the other.

After picking up a technical foul in the first quarter, Ryan Curley picked up a second towards the end of the half and amidst the confusion, the referee disqualified him to the sidelines. Coach Anthony Worthington's protests went unheard and current leading scorer, Curley, had to watch the rest of the game from the bench as he sat down with 12 points. 

It was more of the same from us both in the second half, though we picked up some momentum towards the end of the quarter when Matt Foden and Adam Smith scored consecutive fast breaks.. it was still very close down the stretch and Anthony Worthington hit a jumper to tie the game at 65 and push us into overtime.  

Fortunately, the free-throw God's were on our side and they ultimately won us the game... Fouls on Adrian Willey and Anthony Worthington sent them to the line where they closed the game out to give us a four point victory. 

Not a bad opener, but a lot to work on!