Northwich 26 Broughton Park 17 match report

Nerves were twitching!

Northwich were delighted to welcome Broughton Park back to Moss Farm having been missing from our fixture list for some time. The weather played tricks luring everyone into a false sense of security before commencing to rain just as we were preparing to kick off. Martin Poste was delighted to be able to field almost the same side that travelled to Douglas. Only Joel Barber was missing from that squad. With BP stringing a win streak together the blacks knew they were in for a difficult afternoon.

With three tries in less than 20 minutes Northwich looked like they would overwhelm the visitors. The first score came after 7 minutes Will du Randt gathered a clearance kick and cut a hole in the BP defence a couple of charges were followed by the ball being moved wide for Houghton to score in the corner. Baldwin was on target with a fine conversion. Three minutes later the second try was scored. An attacking lineout was secured and the blacks were able to build the pressure. With the BP defence stretched Baldwin delivered a. inch perfect cross kick for Skinkis to collect and score. The conversion edged wide but the blacks were in control. On the 17th minute another clearance kick was gathered, this time it was Houghton who countered setting up a series of drives before the mercurial James crossed to score a deserved try. Baldwin’s conversion took the Northwich lead to 19 points. At this point BP stepped up a gear and started to take the match to the hosts. On the 23rd minute they were awarded a penalty for not releasing and got of the mark with 3 points. Although there was no further score in the half the contest was becoming intense with the defenses coming to the fore. Despite the efforts of Heywood, James and Clark ably assisted by the rest of the pack they could not find a way through the BP defense and the half drew to a close.
The visitors were beginning to find their feet and on the 63rd minute were rewarded with a try. They mounted an attack close to the Northwich line and eventually drove over for a converted try. Ten minutes later BP turned over a Northwich ball and took the initiative to mount an attack that produced a second converted try and closing the gap to just 2 points. The remaining minutes were nerve wracking for everyone except the players who carried on battling for the points. Deep in stoppage time the blacks stole a ball at the breakdown and moved it quickly to Baldwin who delivered another superb cross kick for Houghton to gather. As Houghton went to ground he was able to offload to the ever present Clark to score in the corner. Baldwin added the extras and the match was won with a bonus point.

Martin Poste was please with the performance but knows there will need to be improvements for the difficult journey to Warrington.
Next week Northwich travel to Warrington KO 2.15pm

1 Joe Maddocks 2 Mike Gough 3 Chris Bradshaw 4 Chris Heywood 5 Matt Ensor 6 Chris James 7 Tom Clark 8 Sam Naylor 9 Matt Poste (Capt) 10 Nick Baldwin 11 Robin Houghton12 Richard Dale13 James Underhill 14 Hayden Skinkis 15 Will du Randt 16 Tom Husbands 17 Adam Bennett 18 Conor Lapniewski