It was another bad day at the office for Aston as they went down 20 points to 3 to local rivals, Lordswood Dixonians. Once again Aston were forced into some late changes, as Terry Finn cried off and Rafael Guimaraes came up from the bench for his first team debut. Darren Hamilton took his place as replacement, and Rob Chesner moved into the No 10 shirt due to Blake Bennett’s unavailability.

Aston decided to play into the strong wind in the first half, and started with some early forays into the Dixonians 22. However the visitors were able to defend these, and used the slope and wind to clear their lines and force play into Aston’s half. Three long range penalties in the opening 15 minutes were all missed by Dixonians, as their fly half struggled to gauge the strength and direction of the wind, but their dominance of both possession and territory eventually told after 18 minutes. A series of forward surges were initially well defended by Aston, but a gap was finally spotted and exploited when the ball was moved wide, and despite some excellent tackling from debutant Guimaraes, centre Damian Webb dived over for the first try of the game.

Aston reacted positively, and attempted to add some pace to the game. Their endeavours were rewarded after 25 minutes when Tom McNamee kicked a 25 yard penalty to narrow the score to 5-3. With the first half coming to a close, Dixonians exerted further pressure and camped themselves in Aston’s 22, where the home side conceded penalties. The referee eventually lost patience, and hooker Adam Baldock was shown a yellow card for killing the ball 5 metres from the line. Dixonians tried to use the numerical advantage, but were only able to kick a penalty from in front of the posts before the half time whistle went, with the visitors ahead 8-3.

With the elements in their favour in the second half, the home crowd were hopeful of seeing Aston spending most of the half in the Dixonians 22, but this was not to be. Dixonians had a simple, but effective game plan which they executed consistently well for the next 40 minutes. Using their more mobile forwards to make inroads, they offloaded in the tackle to support runners, and retained possession for phase after phase. With Aston being dragged out of position, their backs then exploited holes in the Aston defence to gain further ground. Aston were left to chase the ball, and when they did gain control of it, desperation took hold, and there was little in the way of cohesiveness.

Dixonians scored their 2nd try of the afternoon after 8 minutes of the second half, when winger Tom Davies was on the end of a sweeping move that involved both forwards and backs interlinking. Whilst the conversion from near the touchline was missed, the 10 point gap gave Dixoninans added confidence, as their forward control deprived Aston of any possession to work with. Ross Midgely & Lea Ross were replaced after 50 minutes by Chris Balmforth and Jules Phipps, and whilst Phipps secured some much needed line out ball, neither could help to stem the flow of ball for Dixonians to any great degree.

With the game entering the final quarter, Dixonians picked up their 3rd try, when they were quicker to react to a loose ball. Aston had been attempting to add some urgency to their game, but when a quick tap penalty went to ground, Aston players, to a man, stood still, whilst the visitors pounced on the ball and ran through the static defence to put Webb in for his second try of the game. With the conversion a formality, Dixonians had established an unassailable 20-3 margin.

The game ended with players from both sides being shown red cards after a brief melee, Aston’s Adam Baldock receiving his for his second yellow card of the match.

For Aston, only Mike Goodwin, Andy Wood and Rafael Guimaraes came out of the game with any real credit – with their workrate, commitment and fitness being a marked step up from the rest of the team. Coach Allan Mitchell, along with spectators, will expect to see a vastly improved performance and attitude in both training sessions and the next game.