Telford…0 Glossop (Sponsored by Aldi)…39
The first round of the EDF National trophy saw Glossop drawn away to Telford Hornets. With Telford playing a level below Glossop this was a game that required a solid performance, the basics done properly and a win to qualify for the next round. Telford came out with a purposeful opening ten minutes with strong direct running the main feature of their play. Glossop looked dangerous whenever they got the ball and it didn’t take long for the scoring to open. Jon Murphy scythed through the Hornet’s midfield, stepping defenders at will, and accelerating away with ease. Glossop soon realised that the opposition would find it hard to live with a fast running game, captain Kit Brammer broke the line on two occasions, on the first he drew the fullback and passed back inside for the supporting Wilkinson to touch down under the posts, on the second he cut through a scattered defence to coast in untouched. Brammer wasn’t finished for the half as he gathered his chip over the defence to score another try.
Glossop were playing well but needed to crush any hopes of a fight back from a spirited Telford outfit. The second half ushered in another period of pressure from Glossop as prop Richard Tamplin made a twenty meter break bowling over all those who stood in his way, the subsequent move saw him dive over the line. Glossop were very much in the ascendancy, but a silly late tackle by Dave Shirt meant the boys in blue would have to play ten minutes a man down. Telford rallied and took control of the scrums in Shirts absence. However it was their handling that badly let them down and two break-away tries from Murphy and Horbachewski sealed the win. A couple of conversions thrown in there by a variety of goal kickers left the final score 0-39. All away victories are good and to score thirty nine points on the road should please the whole squad, none more so than the Sonczak family, for who father and son played in their first game together. Next week see’s a resumption to league action as, undefeated Mansfield travel to Hargate Hill. The World Cup final will be shown later that evening on the big screen, so get up to the club and cheer on England’s finest.