With the Newcastle outfit having a plethora of players Phoenix were able to borrow a prop and able to start the game at a pace where they actually attacked the Tyneside outfit and effectively won the game in the first quarter.

The intent was shown when Honey came close to intercepting early doors only to let the ball slip when the line beckoned.

Then on the 5 minute mark Phoenix won a penalty which was kicked to the corner – from the ensuing line out they caught and drove with a grateful Watts stealing the ball form Veal to open the scoring. – 5-0

The centre pairing of Mortimore and Honey was functioning well and it was evident the Gosforth backline weren’t happy to encounter the burly frame of Mr Mortimore, complimented with some encouraging runs from his slighter counterpart Honey.

The next score came courtesy of an Olly Clarke forage resulting from an initial Sykes incursion that saw new boy Robinson opt to break blind to allow Clarke to go over, Millar slotting the extra two points – 12-0

Gosforth came close to closing the gap after the Gosforth fly half came back to the blind evaded a couple tackles to see his off load knocked on when a score beckoned.

The next score was the pick of the Phoenix bunch after a Honey forage into the 22 saw the hard working Elliot come off his opposite wing to go over in the left , again Millar slotting a difficult 2 points. 19-0 to Phoenix at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter saw Phoenix maintain the momentum where Veal was prolific around the park causing a nuisance and overturning the ball much to the frustration of the home side.

Tom Elliot almost doubled his tally after collecting a bounced ball on the plastic pitch and seemingly touching down only adjudged to have touched the side line prior to scoring.

Olly Clarke also carried on where he left off last season with some surging probing runs from deep making good yardage.

The half was concluded with a Mortimore try when he was on hand to collect the Gosforth centres fumble from ten yards out to go over with Robinson adding the 2 points

HT- 26-0

The third quarter saw Gosforth start off with a deepening intent which was rewarded with a score after some slick interplay between forwards and back saw them reduce the deficit by seven.

Phoenix responded with a foray into Gosforth territory that saw a break to the left where Mince in support of Millar offloaded to Farley who scampered the 20 yards when the Gosforth defence was left open. 7-33

For the final quarter Phoenix’s defence proved string until the diminutive Gosforth full back come back blind to evade some poor tackling that saw the Tyneside outfit finish the game with a converted try. However Gosforth were never able to recover form the early damage inflicted by visiting Yorkshire side

14-33 Final Score.

Match Report: Billy Farley

Photo's courtesy of F.S.P Photography