Houghton have bad day at the office

HOUGHTON HAVE A BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

After the promotion celebrations of two weeks ago Houghton were brought crashing down to earth with an untypical sub par performance which saw them lose 12 – 5 to Yarm in their final home game of the season.

The first thirty minutes of the game was a rather turgid affair played between the 22’s and saw both sides cancel out each others attempts to move the ball forward. During this period the game really didn’t flow and when Houghton got possession and tried to move forward they were let down on a number of occasions by uncharacteristic basis handling errors

Houghton final started to exert some pressure in the final 10 minutes of the half and put the Yarm defence under pressure in their 22. Houghton got very close to the try line on a few occasions but were stopped by resolute defending by Yarm. Houghton thought that they had made the break through when scrum half Danny Bradley pick up the ball at the break down a couple of metres out and dived for the line only for the referee to adjudge that the ball had not touched the line.

FIRST HALF: HOUGHTON 0 - 0 YARM

Yarm started the second half brightly and immediately put the Houghton defence under pressure, after several phases this pressure eventually paid off in the 43rd minute when they broke through an almost static Houghton defence to score under the posts to break the deadlock. The conversion was successfully kicked,

Houghton immediately tried to get on the offensive but were once again let down by basic handling errors.

The game for the majority of the second half was similar to the first half and played in the middle of the park with very few scoring opportunities for either side. However Houghton finally reduced the deficit 10 minutes from time when Graeme Bennett made a darting run up the right wing to score in the corner but unfortunately he was unsuccessful with the conversion.

This try spurred on Houghton to try and win the game but in the closing minutes they were caught out by a counter attack by Yarm which saw them run in a try in the corner but were unsuccessful with the conversion kick..

This ended any hopes that Houghton had of rescuing the game.

Houghton travel to Chester Le Street next Saturday for their final game of the season.

FULL TIME: HOUGHTON 5 – 12 YARM