Broughton Park 4th XV 0 – Glossop 3rd XV 17
Saturday 12th January 2008
Glossop travelled to Broughton Park’s impressive ground for what should have been a walk in the, well… park. Glossop still have a game in hand over 2nd place Oldham who they meet next week and if they won both today and the following game they would leap frog up into the promotion spot Oldham 3rd XV currently occupy. Broughton Park 4th XV are currently bottom of the table despite some impressive results throughout the season and have a far far better points difference than the majority of the teams in the league. (In fact the table doesn’t seem to add up in terms of their position and I’m not sure it is actually correct, unless they have had some points deducted. It seems that five of their six wins are considered ‘No front row’ victories which only count as two points instead of four…) From the performance they delivered against Glossop they aren’t a team that should be propping up the table.
As with most of Glossop’s games of late it started slowly. Learning from last weeks disastrous opening few minutes against Trafford however they realised that mentally they had to switch on before the game started and unlike last week their tackling was solid. Broughton Park were probably the more attacking team in the opening ten minutes or so however at no point did it really look like they were capable of breaking the Glossop defence. Glossop’s forwards once again were dictating the pace of the game whether in defence or attack with great support play coming from hooker Andy Williamson especially who played a blinder, flanker Gary Wilson and John Wood who has been impressive two weeks in a row now also playing at flanker. Broughton Park looked quite a young team (or maybe that’s just compared to Glossop) and it could have been from this inexperience or it may just be the fact that most teams are struggling against Glossop’s rolling maul that they conceded first but it was once again this move that broke the deadlock. Phil Littlewood for the fourth game in a row scoring Glossop’s opening try from a rolling maul after about fifteen minutes play. Iain Hughes who returned to play last week after a lengthy injury started on the wing and made some cracking tackles throughout as well as a couple of notable breaks. Wes Brown stood in at prop for regular team captain Kev Swift who was forced out of this game with the shoulder injury that took him off against Trafford last week and so Paul Whiston in his regular fly half position took over the captaincy and delivered a composed and balanced game. Brown’s scrummaging was immense and obviously too much for his opposite man who went to the side lines for the majority of the first half nursing his shoulder resulting in unopposed scrums. Glossop furthered their lead after a wave of pressure that saw a couple of drives over the line called as held up when Dave Alderdyce added another try to this seasons impressive tally with a quick pick up from the base of the scrum. The rest of the half was evenly balanced in terms of possession but once again Broughton Park never looked like scoring. The half time whistle was blown and Glossop went into the break leading ten – nil.
The second half was very much similar to the first however Glossop were definitely the more attacking team throughout. Soon after the break Jon Robinson playing in his customary position at centre had a great chance to extend Glossop’s lead with a penalty but unfortunately the kick was pulled to the left of the up rights. He more than made up for this however with easily the best try of the game. Glossop again had number of tries disallowed (in one case even when Broughton Park thought it was a try) as the ref called the grounding as held up and it was after one of the resulting five metre line scrums given to Glossop that Robinson scored. The ball was driven on from the scrum and after one phase Robinson judged his running angle perfectly, crossing back diagonally through the Park defensive line and attempted tackles and over the line. Robinson also converted his own try which took Glossop to seventeen points. The Broughton Park front row were reunited again and so the scrums were opposed in the second half but this just aided Glossop’s forward dominance and they really should have put far more points on the board. When young Will Reddington came onto the wing for the injured Thomasson he had a couple of chances and it looked like his pace would get Glossop more points with some darting runs but the final break through never came. Colin Rothery with fresh legs coming on to the opposite wing also made an impact on the game late in the half but still the final push just wouldn’t happen. It was a frustrating half that the visitors clearly governed despite the points not reflecting it. Glossop came away with the all important win but will definitely need more of a cutting edge next week if they want to win what could potentially be a promotion decider against Oldham who beat them in their meeting earlier in the season however Glossop are a far more confident side now and have proved they are a resilient team who are hard to beat.
Team Sheet
1.Brown 2.Williamson 3.Gatsby 4.Smith 5.Deacon 6.Wood 7.Wilson 8.Littlewood 9.Alderdice 10.Whiston 11.Hughes 12.Robinson 13.Openshaw 14.Thommason 15.Howarth
Subs: 16.Reddington 17.Rothery 18.Ford