Despite being without a point from their first 7 games, Goole have shown that they can score points, having run Hullensians, West Leeds & West Park Leeds all close in the opening weeks of the season.

Following the previous weeks impressive first half display against league leaders Leodiensians, the only change to the Phoenix side saw Adam Burton replace the unavailable Ben Millar at inside centre, with Jonny Stuart taking Burton’s place on the wing.

The opening exchanges were evenly matched, with several handling errors preventing either team building much momentum. The Goole fly-half saw a drop-goal attempt drop inches short of the crossbar, before Jonny Stuart put Phoenix on the board with a penalty from the Goole 22. This settled Phoenix into the game and they soon extended their lead as centre Burton made a break in midfield before feeding full-back Owen Denovan who continued his recent good scoring form with a converted try under the posts. Phoenix continued to exert pressure and scrum-half Joe Watts was the next to go over for the simplest of tries following a powerful 20 yard driving maul from the forwards. 15 – 0 to Phoenix.

With the first half entering the final throes, a Goole prop intercepted a Phoenix pass on halfway, although he wasn’t going to have the pace to make the try line himself, a trip on a supporting player from Phoenix fly-half Tim Elliot earned 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

With Phoenix down to 14 men for the start of the second half, Goole made the perfect start and attacked the blindside from a scrum – making the numerical advantage count for a try in the corner. Shortly afterwards they pulled another try back following a break in midfield to pull themselves right back into the game at 15 – 12. However, now restored to a full complement Phoenix replied with a Stuart penalty and then a quickfire double which effectively killed off the game. First full-back Denovan bagged his brace with a try wide in the left corner before sustained Phoenix forward pressure ended with flanker Joe Horrocks going over and also saw the Goole No.8 yellow carded for persistent infringements.

To their credit Goole never gave up and scored their third try after a neat chip and chase by their fly-half who fed his inside centre for his second try of the day.

Phoenix though had the final say as second row Greg Neill followed up a half-break from fly-half Tim Elliot to go over under the posts for a try converted by Denovan to leave the final score at 39 – 22.

Despite not playing their best rugby, Phoenix did enough to take the 5 points on the day. However they know an improvement will be needed next Saturday when they travel to take on recently relegated Selby, who currently sit just 3 points above Phoenix in the league table.