2nds hoisted by their own petard!

A squad of 22 players somehow conspired to be a squad of 17 by the Saturday morning with 6 cry offs coming after Thursday – add to that 2 straightforward no shows and 3 players turning up over 30 minutes late for a meet time to an away game and the tone was set for the day.

The 15 players who did travel had to contend with a rushed warm up and an urgent rejig of the team with players out of position they also faced an organised and fairly strong 22 man squad from Winlaton complete with a physio and a coach (What luxury!)..

Those that did travel made a reasonable account of themselves, a clear contrast in styles with Winlaton’s huge forwards looking for a tight game whilst with pace out wide Novos were looking to move the ball around. Initially Novos were successful but they wasted a hatful of chances, with the final pass not going to hand and a little white line fever creeping in at times. Despite this Novos opened the scores when good hands from the back line found Glenn Fife who powered over from 10 yards Jason Mcdermott missed the conversion. From the kick off Novos switched off and allowed Winlaton an early kickable penalty which they took to reduce the deficit to 3-5.

What followed was typical of Novos day, Debutant Graham Jardine fielded a ball that clearly bounced backwards but the referee adjudged a knock on, Novos soaked up pressure and a steal from Liam Savage allowed Jardine to send a kick up field and into touch which the touch judge gave but was over ruled by the referee and Winlaton attacked and scored a try while most of the Novos team whinged at the referee instead of getting on with the game.

Novos attacked from the kick off again and continued to dominate the play and a break from Richy Moat took play deep into Winlatons 22, Novos set up a ruck and Mcdermott released the ball to Dave Addison who got over to score his first try of the season and finally take his career total into double figures! The game was level at 10 – 10 going into half time.

The 2nd half didn’t start well, Novos ill discipline allowing Winlaton another kickable penalty to take the lead again. Novos battled back and began to get into the game again and got into Winlaton territory, Micheal Williams on hand to finish the move and score a try that Mcdermott converted, Novos led 17 – 13.

Winlaton to their credit did not allow their heads to drop and came back at Novos, playing a good tight game against a tiring Novos 15 without any fresh legs to call on and it was a real kick in the teeth when some truly awful defending gifted Winlaton the winning try at the death of the game which they converted to win 20 – 17.

All in all, a strange day ending in disappointment, Novos actually played some decent stuff in patches and on another day would have beaten Winlaton. Plaudits should go to a plucky Winlaton side who never gave up and fancied the scalp which in the end they deserved. Novos can blame several things but ultimately were responsible for their own downfall on a day when they really were hoisted by their own petard!.

There were positives to derive, A strong debut from Graham Jardine, a new signing at full back and Richy Moat had a good game in the centres. Pick of the bunch though was Liam Savage who put in Man of the match performance following a call up from the thirds…. He is likely to keep his place with the seconds now after a committed display both in defence and attack.

An improvement in attitude is required in time for the next league game in 2 weeks against Ryton, whose first team ominously don’t have a game that day to maintain our title aspirations because if we play the same way we will be beaten, with all respect to Winlaton, we should really be beating sides like the one we faced on Saturday comfortably.