NEW BRIGHTON were pleased to bounce back to winning form at the expense of Sandbach at the weekend after a couple of setbacks.

The Blues, after a depressing period, are winning the battle to steady the ship at Hartsfield and could easily have a say in the promotion issue in North Two West.

“We still have a long way to go but I think were are slowly getting there,” said head coach Steve Dorrington, who had to name himself as one of the replacements in the latest game due to injury and unavailability.

Brighton have done their best to recruit new players and certainly there is a good atmosphere within the squad.

The big worry is the number of injuries as there is currently not a lot of back-up for key positions. Skipper Kati Tuipulotu and influential scrum-half Mike Gallimore are among players turning out when they would benefit from a spell on the sidelines.

Gallimore, in fact, took the full-back role against Sandbach but it is hard to keep him out of the action. He popped up for two of the five tries and it was a comfortable 29-3 finish for the Wirral club, admittedly against very ordinary opposition.

Alan Hesketh, who took over at scrum-half, also touched down along with Tuipulotu and Stephen Dean.

It was all very rewarding for the many past players who attended a reunion pre-match luncheon before adding support from the terraces.

But there is obviously a long way to go for Brighton who not so long ago had eyes on a National Two placing but instead sank two divisions from National Three North as financial problems rocked the boat.

Next up for the Blues is another home game against Northwich on Saturday.

It certainly looks like another win opportunity, with their opponents not having the best of seasons to date after a highly satisfying 2006-07 promotion campaign.