MANCHESTER Wanderers kept up their 100 per cent start to the season with a less than convincing 31-5 victory over Congleton.

Dave Laws returned to skipper a side that saw the return of the mercurial ex-Henley player Rupert 'Bill' Davidson and props Stu Giles & Lance Byrne after injury.

The match began in typical Wanderers style as they could not get into the game and kept making silly mistakes while the home team threw everything at the Wanderers in an attempt to register an early score.

This wasn't to be and eventually, the Wanderers managed to string some passes and phases together and the ball found its way to wing Dave Murray to register his and the team's first points.

The conversion was missed by James although he managed to convert the next try from hooker Alex Hooley who latched onto the end of a mesmeric jinking run from opposite wing Keith Warhurst.

The sides turned round at half time with the Wanderers carrying a slender 12-0 lead although this was increased to 19-0 after centre Neil James carved through the home defence and converted his own try.

Davidson and sub Ed Dean were then introduced, the latter making an immediate impact by crossing the try line which was also converted by James to take the score to 26-0.

Next over was full back Jamie Whitworth after some fine interplay between the forwards and backs which left the away side 31-0 up although Congleton managed to breach the Wanderers line for the first time in three matches to register their own 5-pointer.

Next week sees a tough league encounter at home to Halton with a 3pm kick off.

The Wanderers 2nd XV continued on last week's performance by winning 17-7 at Preston Grasshoppers.

A notoriously tough encounter which is always closely fought saw the spoils go to Manchester courtesy of a try by Manchester University wing Andy Gbinigie and then a spectacular length of the field sprint by veteran full back Simon Dobson who also converted both tries and stroked over a penalty.

Captain Paul Farrington immediately paid tribute to his players saying: "They showed great effort and determination today, even though we were backed into a corner for most of the match. "

Next week sees the 2nd XV travelling away to play Ormskirk with the kick off at 3pm.