Did Peth sacrifice league for the cup?

The first cold start for the winter saw the mighty People’s Republic host a strong Morpeth side while our hallowed turf was still icy at the time of kick off.
A much change side was selected due to unavailability in the aftermath of our mighty defeat of the undecided porridge eaters of Berwick, but never the less it would still be considered a strong unit to take forth to the battle of Morpeth on in the bitterly cold wind heading straight down the pitch. Warm up started with Dearden taking the Marshals award on this occasion.
The start of the game was difficult after our dear leader lost the toss requiring us to play both into the sun and the wind in the first half which would later prove to seal our fate.
Morpeth set out executing the game plan we would have liked to take to them applying pressure with both significant territory and position. Much of this first half was played in or around our own 22 due to ball retention and ability to kick into the wind. (The only outlet was the powerful breaks made by the leader)
Morpeth granted us several penalties early on but we were unable to get adequate clearance or dominant position on the field. We found ourselves back in our half on numerous occasions and Novos absorbing this pressure the best we could but technical errors saw Morpeth capitalising to score 2 tries with 1 conversion. Half time 12-0 to Morpeth.
Half time talk by the dear leader was to dig deep and never surrender which was taken on and we played to the bitter end.
Now with the wind and gravely missing baker the ball carrier from the previous week. We decided to put in long kick chases to gain territory as in the first half we had as much penetration as Burford a sex life! However this theory wasn't as devastating against Morpeth as it was against us unfortunately.
A change in personnel saw our young and very promising new 9 Alex Caldwell come at 9 for Justin who deservedly won this week’s shit shoveller award and mark Hemmings return to 12 to have a stormer probing his intent to regain his 12 shirt again by offering to carry and doing so well and never dropping a ball.(however I suspect the dear leader threatened to have his hands off of there were any unforced errors)
Novos were able to play the game we know we can for short periods but reffing of seamed non-existent throughout with holding on, killing the ball and being off your feet all considered legal at every ruck.
Never the less Novos generated some quick ball which HRH took right finding a bus pack against Morpeths hefty forwards with the incredibly gifted and hardworking Matt Freeman in support to give an easy 2 on 1 with the full back and reward him for all his hard graft he does for the people's republic with a score in the corner.
Novos scrum started to dominate the tiring Morpeth pack winning a couple of turnovers at the set piece and other positives to take from this pretty grim performance were Oliver Dearden carrying the ball very well and the great Addison providing some perfectly timed support play.
Novos starting to capitalise with a free kick but only after 3 separate offences at scrum time to go quickly only to see Jonny bird kick the ball out on the full, his fourth kick of the day winning him the forwards shouldn't kick award.
Morpeth came back and got a third score unconverted after some break down in Novos communication.
Novos replaced their right wing James Jeffrey after he was sick into his own 60s porn star style tash with Alex Fenwick who proved his worth and experience squeezing in at the corner.
Discipline started to slip with both teams resorting to shoulder charges to try and up the collision in the contact in attempt to gain the upper hand which no surprise were also deemed legal by a ref playing rules from a decade ago however by now Novos needed to keep the ball alive after our second try trailing 10-17 but handling errors saw us shoot ourselves in the foot and the final whistle went with a Morpeth win and quite deservedly so! Novos came back and showed strength heart character courage and skill but in the end was too little too late.
Key for us to remember how this loss felt next week end and show no mercy to an undefeated Sunderland and bring a ruthless game to break them down the way we know we can.
The dear leaded received a lovely inbox from our good friend me Flint the Berwick skipper congratulating him on our loss at which point the dear leader left fines meeting to attend urgent business probably in the form of driving to Berwick to have him executed!
We can now focus on winning the league as Morpeth 3s and seconds surprisingly lost their fixtures you would assume should have been easy wins.
We lost the battle but will win the war!!!!
Man of the match goes to Blair for once again a great game and incredible work rate and the Tom Burford award goes to James Jeffrey.
See u all Saturday my trusty noblemen
HRH