The Owls headed North for this match against Burton, the club where Captain John Clark started his rugby journey to commemorate his dad, a Burton stalwart as well as another Burton legend who passed away recently. The squad made the long trip to arrive at Burton's fantastic ground and after a short warm up took to the first team pitch in front of a large and expectant crowd.

Burton, a very successful Midlands side had a large squad but it was Vandals who scored first after Dave Kemp, a constant thorn in their defence, made a great break, off-loaded to the omnipresent Brian O'Leary and when Burton illegally stopped the ruck, it was skipper Clark who took a quick penalty, off loaded to hooker Ross who had a walk in.

This stung Burton in to action and their large forwards took the ball on, and after a long kick rumbled over the line.

Skipper Clark was in the action again deciding to take a drop out, after Vandals had stopped a try by holding them up, unfortunately all the players were lined up left and John kicked in to the wind on the right and they scored again after a chip and chase, got a fortunate bounce and walked in under the posts. 5-14 after Q1.

After the huddle where all players, especially prop Wayne Mason agreed not to kick, the second quarter started and for some reason, Wayne did kick, to their winger who eventually scored another try.

Back Vandals came with a lovely switch between Quinny and Kempy, for Dave to score under the posts to finish the 2nd quarter 12-21.

Quarter 3 saw a few changes, including the introduction of Joe Da Costa who had driven up from Worcester, and former junior club mate of the skipper, Mark Rudman who had driven from Harlow. Vandals scored another lovely backs try with winger Steve Harrison causing the defence all sorts of trouble. After some more excellent line out work, a quick off the top pop from Brian O'Leary, saw the backs go wide off first phase and another off load saw Kemp score under the posts. 19-21 and it was anyones game. Burton scored at the end of the quarter but it felt like momentum had shifted. By this stage club president Kev Keaney was on the field, organising the forwards, former owls skipper Matt Dowd was in the engine room, the Mills brothers were dominant in the loose and the backs looked threatening whenever we had the ball.

Q4 started with the players determined to get ahead and stay ahead. The message was simple, put pressure on them in their 22, don't get isolated and attack out wide - not a easy thing to do with a tiring pack! But the lads dug deep, with herculean efforts from all players. Mike Cox was now on the field to add even more experience, as was Swiss. Vandals scored again and the last 5 saw Burton trying to run it out from their half and being met time and again by a brave and totally committed defence. The ref blew for full time and the Owls rightfully began a long afternoon and night of celebration.

Days like these will live long in the memory and help to make the bond between this group of excellent players even stronger. It was clear they were playing for each other and when the going got tough - they all dig in, making them a very hard team to beat. Onwards to Irish on Friday 18th October, back at home, under the lights.