Gosforth v Westoe

Westoe fight back to win 45-22

Gosforth 22 South Shields Westoe 45

Wednesday 25th April 2018

With Gosforth having beaten Gateshead just recently it was generally acknowledge the they must have strengthened their side since the last meeting between themselves & Westoe when they lost 123 – 0 at Woods Terrace.
It certainly looked that way when Gosforth’s number 8, centre, right wing and full-back posed many defensive challenges for Westoe throughout the game.

Westoe started brightly enough when faced with a very strong wind & sunshine, with the forwards all running hard & strong lines at the opposition to make ingress into the home sides defences. Repeated pickup & goes led to Paul Evans finally breaking away from a forward dominated sustained period of play to score on the left side of the pitch. Gosforth responding with one of their own before Joe Mckenzie battled his way through various tackles to add to Westoe’s score.

The home side responded well with good work from their number 8, centre, right wing and full-back, allowing said winger to cross the white wash for 2 tries that brought the score at the end of the first half to 17-12.

Westoe turned round with the strong wind & even lower sunshine behind them, but it was Gosforth that score first in the second half taking their score to 22 points that was to be their last of the game.
Even when Westoe were reduce to 13 men they failed to add to their score.

Westoe upped their game and responded with 2 converted tries during this period when they had 1 and then 2 players in the sin bin.
With Westoe a forward down Gosforth wheeled the scrummage that was on the Westoe 5 metre line towards the posts, this allowed Judson to feed Arnold who sped down the left wing outpacing his following tacklers, and then he stepped inside of the covering defence to touch down under the posts.

Down to 13 men and Westoe began kicking and chasing from their own 22 and with the wind behind them and the low sun in the eyes of the home side caused them to retreat & defend. A mistake by Gosforth allowed Westoe to recycle quick ball for Foster to score under the posts.

Back to full strength; Westoe continued to use the same tactics of kick and chase to pressurise Gosforth into making even more mistakes that resulted in 2 more tries for Mckenzie & Arnold.
The other try of the game came from a bollocking run when the Captain burst out of his own 22 after a Gosforth restart kick. Trundling at great speed for such big man Kirton was eventually brought down around the Gosforth 22. Quick recycled ball saw Ramsay score in the far corner.

Although Westoe ran away with the second half eventually…… Gosforth never gave up the chase and were constantly on the counter attack whenever they had the ball in hand. Only aggressive and sometimes last minute tackling from Westoe stopped them from scoring.

This leaves Westoe in second place in the table on 108 points, but with Consett having 106 points and a game to play against Gateshead on Saturday, then Westoe’s chance of a playoff place is in the hands of Consett.

Westoe 1st team still has one game to play & that’s the cup final game against Barnard Castle on Tuesday 8th May at Durham’s Hollow Drift ground. Kick-off is 7.30pm. Your presence & support would be gladly accepted by the team.

The 2nd team play their last game of the season this Saturday the 28th against Barnard Castle at home & after having won the 2nd team’s cup a week or so ago could possibly win promotion if they win and Acklam lose.