Colne v Garstang

Saturday saw visitors Garstang up at Holt House for the final game of this season. They were a couple of places above us in the league and a close game was anticipated.
Good weather saw a fine crowd watching the game bolstered by players and parents from the under 16’s who had played the Garstang under 16’s (and won handsomely) earlier that afternoon.
A poor start by Colne saw Garstang go over in the corner in the 14th minute with the kick not converted. From the resultant kick off Colne kept possession of the ball and some strong work by the forwards saw the ball edging closer to the Garstang posts. Pitbull then picked up the ball in the 20th minute and bulldozed his way through several defenders before dropping over the line. He then converted the kick himself leaving Colne 7 points to 5 to the good.
In the 30th minute some great work by the returning Wadey saw Padge take the ball and the Garstang defence were helpless to stop him storming through several players and grounding the ball over the whtewash. Kick not converted and the score remained 12 points to 8 in Colne’s favour at half time.
The second half kicked off and some poor handling in the ruck saw Garstang awarded a penalty which they converted taking the score to 12 – 11.
In the 60th minute a storming solo run by Pitbull through the Garstang defence saw them unable to stop him and he was able to crash his way over the line for his second try of the match. Kick not converted leaving the score 17 points to 11.
Garstang then kicked a penalty over in the 70th minute leaving a very tense last 10 minutes for Colne to defend. Up to this point it had been a clean and well fought contest but some quite unsavoury tactics by certain of the Garstang players saw Jack hospitalised with a serious groin injury and Dem receiving a gash above his eye.
However the Colne defence held strong and the referees whistle after an extra 6 minutes of added time saw a very well deserved and hard fought win for Colne and this final performance bodes well for the start of next season.
Some outstanding performances particularly from Dem in defence and both Wadey and Pitbull up front which were complimented by the rest of the 12 players on the pitch including a very brief appearance by Dean Sykes who managed to stay on the pitch for a whole 2 minutes before getting sent off for allegedly killing the ball in the ruck.
All in all a great finish to the season from a team who have held their own in the league this year and surprised a number of clubs in the top half of the league who have found us not to be the walkover that they were expecting.