Houghton cost themselves with simple errors in derby clash

With Sunderland sitting in the top half of the Durham Northumberland Two Division and last season in Division One the visitors had their work cut out on the soggy Saturday afternoon.

Houghton made an early mark sending the ball into touch in Sunderland’s half and play contested on the half way line. Pressure from the visitors gave them an early attempt for the posts, falling just short they were back on the defence with tackles from Allan Widdowfield, Mark Douglass and Brett Henderson resulting the hosts to phases.

Sunderland continued to take their chances gaining depth into the visitors half, a strong tackle on the try line put another chance for the hosts to bed.

On the rebound Sunderland took advantage of their powerful pack and drove the scrum across the try line to open up scoring with a converted try in the 11th minute.

Action started to become prominent in the hosts half as Houghton used mauls to gain yards and wide set pieces off the back line sending Henderson into a break down on the 22.

The one sided point scoring remained as Houghton made minor errors costing them the turn over at crucial points in the game.
Sunderland kicked and chased the action as they tailed a further two unconverted tries on the board just a minute apart from each other to lead 17-0.

With only 12 minutes remaining in the first half Houghton put their boot in to stop any more points being put past them. Glen Crowther made tackles inside Houghton 22 putting Sunderland into break down while Daniel Bearn escaped the visitors from danger as he kicked the ball into touch.

As Sunderland held an eager three try lead heading into the second half, Houghton looked to make a comeback. An early penalty saw Glen Atkinson take the tap and go with a wide support for the off load. With their chance finished, Mark Douglass flew under the posts marking the first points for the visitors, the conversion by Bearn reduced the gap to 10 points.

Sunderland kept the pressure on but Houghton failed to cave in as their improved hands held them in good stead in the hosts half.

After 60 minutes Houghton were finally closing the gap as they broke the Sunderland 17 point lead down to a three point lead with another converted try. Anthony Bolton channelled off the back of the line out and through the hosts defence to cross the line, the conversion from Bearn gave Houghton the lift they needed.

The work was not yet over for the visitors as Sunderland used their strong pack once more in a maul to cross the line to sit 22-14 in front.

Houghton became within inches of another five points but a knock-on saw the hosts pick up and dart the other end of the field popping the ball off inside to secure their derby bragging rights at Ashbrooke.