Bury Broncos 24-34 Chorley Panthers

Broncos bring open age season to a close

This was a disappointing end to the season for the Broncos, but a much closer scoreline than last week's 40-10 defeat. Both teams went at it from the start, with some big hits in defence from both sides. The game was at stalemate with 25 minutes gone, before the Broncos broke the deadlock with an outstanding try. A Rob Pritchard show and go 30 meters out broke the line and he found Sean Kelly in support, Kelly beating one defender, before drawing another and flicking a delightful back of the hand pass out to Abdou Radwan, Radwan holding off a strong challenge to race in for a great 70 meter score, goaled by Joe Cooke: 6- 0. The Broncos scored again when a strong run and offload by Warren Bluer was picked up by Liam Owen who crashed over from close range, once more goaled by Cooke: 12-0. Although the Broncos were ahead on the scoreboard, Chorley were well in the game and battered the Broncos line, only try saving tackles from Sean Kelly, Jay Rawlinson and Jonathan Tindale holding them out.

The start of the second half was a disaster for the Broncos with Chorley going over twice in quick succession to level the score .The Broncos inabilty to complete their sets, together with a horrendous penalty count against them meant they hardly saw hthe ball, and when Sean Kelly was sin binned after claiming he had got himself under the ball for a Chorley try making it 12-18, they were up against it. In his absence Chorley scored twice more to take a 12-28 lead. Back to 13 men the Broncos struck back when some great handling finished with Abdou Radwan putting Jay Rawlinson in at the corner. Joe Cooke with a tremendous touchline conversion to make it 18-28. Any comeback was quelled when Chorley scored again to go out to 18 -34. The Broncos hit back through a well worked try with halves Pitchard and Sean Kelly linking well to feed Jonno Taylor who carried a defender over to score, Cooke once more with the conversion. Final score Bury Broncos 24-34 Chorley Panthers.

There was outstanding effort from everyone but this was not a great performance - 50% completion rate is not good enough at this level and the horrendous penalty count at the start of the second half meant the Broncos saw the ball for only 8 sets in the second half and this was the period that lost them the game. This has been a difficult season for the club, the team and new coach Graham Holroyd, but all have got through it and will be the stronger for it next season. This is still a young Broncos squad and it is only a matter of time before they get the success that their hard work deserves.