Dogged Novos show spirit to win

Despite missing several regulars from the starting 15 Novos travelled to Ryton knowing victory would lift us out of the relegation places.

Having been buoyed by last weekends victory, Novos were looking for a continuation of the form that had earned a victory over Guisbrough.

Training was well attended through the week and Newcastle Falcons sent Alex Tait, Will Welch and Gav Beasley down to give us some tips, which on the day proved valuable at times, technically Novos did ok. This victory though owes more to guts, tenacity and sheer bloody mindedness than a tactically astute showing.

The game started with Novos giving away a penalty and a 10 metre march back for lip which Ryton kicked an easy penalty to give them an early lead, Novos displayed some pressure on the home side eventually equalized through a Simon Ayr penalty.

Novos early dissent seemed to have irked the official as Ryton seemed to get all of the 50/50 decisions on offer, including a yellow card for a fairly innocuous hands in ruck offence for unlucky Dale Raine. Novos dominated the half without adding to the scores and half time was reached with the scores level at 3 - 3.

The second half was started with 14 men for Novos with Raine still in the bin, talk was around being strong and holding out until the full compliment was restored. The Referee was to unfortunately provide much of the after match talk as a series of decisions infuriated the watching Novos spectators which ultimately led to Ryton regaining the lead, in a strong series of drives from Rytons pack, a knock on, forward pass and a hold up was missed by the official as he awarded a try to give Ryton the lead. Worse was to follow when Alex Littlefair found himself seeing yellow for a bizarre altercation at a ruck, Rytons flanker, grabbing him as the ball was fed in, the referee took Littlefair's attempts to free himself from grip as 'punching' and yellow carded him before further bizarrely awarding the penalty to Novos without dishing any card punishment to Ryton(??).

Further frustration with the official followed when a great tackle from winger James Parkinson, chasing a kick fielded by Ryton's winger, was adjudged as dangerous and he also saw yellow reducing Novos to 13 men!

Despite this Novos battled upfield and a perfectly legitimate score from Matty Bradford was disallowed by the official.

Novos looked destined to defeat but a superb chip over by Dan 'Zoolagonga' Bollado was collected to score and set up a big finish, Simon Ayre smashing over the conversion for Novos to lead with 10 minutes remaining.

From the kick off Ryton, as expected charged forward and Ryton were awarded another penalty in front of the posts which they took to regain the lead, Once again staring defeat in the face Novos battled back and with Ryton defending well it was looking as though another hard luck story would follow, a penalty near half way line presented Novos with a late opportunity with Simon Ayre smashing it over from 45 yards to give Novos a 13-11 lead and ultimately a richly deserved win as time was up.

This was a superb win which lifts Novos out of the relegation places and with Darlington and Alnwick on the horizon those 4 points may just prove vital.