Cents poor run of form continues

Cents played Old Pats in a must win game at the weekend and came off second best again .With this narrow loss Cents moved into the bottom two of the league with Old Pats one place above, both teams are in for a relegation battle over the second half of the season.
This was Cents third home defeat of the season, something that the home side are not used too over the last five or six seasons. However, the home side might be in a better position to fight off relegation when their injury and unavailability problems ease up. This week there was 17 first team squad members not available again and this has been the case for the last five/six weeks.
On the game it's self Old Cents had the better of the first half playing down the slope but only had six points to show for their efforts.Ollie Locke and Craig Holder had score a penalty a piece, however the scores were equal at the half way stage because Old Pats had also scored two penalties of their own. Although the score at half time was 6-6 this was not a dull game far from it as both teams put a lot of effort and commitment into the match. However a good 20 minute spell after half time had the match wrapped up for Old Pats as they powered into a 6-20 lead.A turn over scrum on the half way led to a well worked unconverted try and they followed this up with 3 well converted penalties.Cents fought back in the last twenty minutes and brought the match to an exciting finish when Richard Pinkney finished off a well worked team try.The try was converted by Craig holder and the score was 13-20 to Pats going into the last minutes,the home side looking at a bonus point.
However a silly mistake right at the finish meant Cents lost their bonus point when they gave a penalty away right in front of their posts. Final score was 13-23 to the away side and Pats were worthy winners for their second half performance in a hard fought local derby

Cents will have to regroup quickly because next week they are at Barnstaple who are riding high near the top of the table at the moment. Cents must continue to put the effort in that they are showing at the moment and the young players are showing the commitment that is needed from them although they are not having the breaks.