We were having to work hard for our points

Home v Cresswell Crusaders

Pennant

Lost 15-19

Trys: Morgan, Pownall, Sutton

Cons: ??????

It was over on Newark Castle 1s pitch (pitch 5) we welcomed a Cresswell side that had proved far too strong for us in corresponding fixture earlier in the season. It was clear from the first 10 minutes of play our opposition didn't travel that well as our forwards pressure made lots of good ground and scrum half Gaz Morgan opened the scoring. The ever alert veteran always has his eye open for a gap and dashed through from not far out.

A great start but Cresswell soon pegged us back with good work from their forwards and they had taken the lead by half time. This was mostly down to their No8 and centre partnership which ran the show for them. As the half time break came from an tight first half we were thinking about missed chances. We were 12-5 down and should have been in the lead talking about how to extend our advantage. We needed to be more clinical with our finishing.

We were first to score in the second period with back row Aaron Pownall going over for a rare try after lots of good work by the forwards but it was well deserved as his tackling game had at times kept us in it. We were having to work hard for our points where our opponents were breaking away for their trys. Their last try came form outside the 22 as we failed to bring their big no8 to the ground but we did score again through second row Paul Sutton again from persistent work by the forwards.

We battled hard for a winning try but to no avail. We could have had the game sown up in the first half but poor decisions and final ball put pay to that. That being said it was a good team performance and the score line shows how we battled. Names of note have to include Nick Edlin and Trigger on the back row who covered a lot of ground and the skipper Ben Wells taking crash ball at every opportunity. MOTM has to go to Matt Christian who played virtually the whole game out of position at full back and didn’t put a foot wrong. Nice to know we’ve got cover in emergency.

Trying to put 4 sides out next week to honour all the league fixtures. Badger anyone that plays to get their boots on and help the club out.