Blaydon take the honours

Mowden Park let Blaydon work harder than them and take the plaudits on Sunday.

Although Mowden kept their penalty count lower than Blaydons, a conference in the middle of the pitch on what should happen and insufficient support when the decision was made meant Mowden did not put any of this advantage to their advantage.

The decisions were so bizarre, that a penalty kick was decided despite being 14-0 down with 5 minutes to play !

Blaydon managed to run two tries past Mowden and some great kicking saw them advance to 14-0 with Mowden still looking for their first try.

With three penalties in the red zone, Mowden were very unlucky not to be awarded a penalty try, and for some reason they seemed to think a single player could break the Blaydon ranks, and despite failing many times, they kept trying the same technique. There were spaces all along the line, but unfortunately the players with the ball could not see them.

With Blaydon's number 9 being on the edge of legal this put real pressure on Mowdens number 9's who had a torrid time, with Scott Wilson setting the best example, but with only about 3 plays where the ball went from number 9 to outside centre, where our strongest runner was, Mowden were struggling to put together their own plays.

Blaydon however, still had to defend to which they stuck at, and it was great to see the ref picking up a lot of hands in, which Mowden have suffered from in the past.

Finally the ball came to Harry Parnaby and something about training must have stuck as he kept pumping, despite having 4 Blaydon players hanging off him and cross the try line and grounded the ball to score for Mowden.

With Blaydon already scoring a rare drop goal, this left the score at 17-5.

Alex Fullarton had his usual strong runs, but did not get enough ball to make the penetrations he normally makes.

Mowden defended well enough, but it was their lack of attack which cost them the game.

Tom Ducker had a great game and was particularly strong in the lineouts, collecting the ball from Shaun's knock downs, but still managed to collect the ball even when Shaun had gone off. An excellent work ethic also saw him take Forward of the Match

Robert Lawson and Jonathan O'Neill had their usual solid game, which is sometimes overlooked, with Robert being strong in the hooking department.

Scott Wilson had a good game at number 9 and was quick off the mark when playing flanker, putting Blaydon under pressure, and you could tell the difference when he was on the pitch, a close call for Forward of the Match.

After Harry had made his first missed tackle he became impenetrable and would have took Back of the Match without the last minute try, which just iced his day.

Some work to be done in the backs, especially under pressure. It is always easy to get a clean ball when no one is breathing down your neck, but we saw this week that we have to work on making these passes under pressure. It will make a difference.

We also must look to pressure the other teams for the duration of the game.

A better effort than Middlesborough, but still not where we were at the beginning of the season !