Mistakes and chances not taken

But immediately Fleetwood found themselves pinned down in their half by West Park’s relentless pressure, giving Fleetwood no time with the ball and therefore no handle on the game. And although there was some good stout defence from Fleetwood, they couldn’t stop the inevitable, West Park scored with a good passing move along the backs (7-0). With the restart came the resurgence from Fleetwood. With hands on the ball Fleet showed their potential with good interplay along the backs and forwards penetrating West Parks lines. But it was from a West Park lineout, 10 metres from their line that the breakthrough came. An over throw by the West Park hooker allowed Jordan Brocklehurst to catch the loose ball and dart across the line to score. Tom Evans converted bringing the score all level (7-7). From here West Park applied the pressure once more and with Fleet not making the most of their touch kicking, West Park where able to capitalise and scored a well worked try in the corner (12-7). With Half Time approaching and Fleetwood feeling the pressure of prolonged defending, a few missed or poor tackles and missed kicks for touch led to another converted try by West Park (17-7) and a converted penalty (20-7).

It wasn’t long after the second half kicked-off we saw the Yellow card removed from the Referees pocket! After what looked like “hangbags at dawn” both Jamie Mayall and the West Park Centre where binned. It was during this early half of the second period that Fleetwood seemed to grasp the momentum, the forwards becoming dominant, leading to a try by young Keane McCann, which was duly converted by Tom Evans (20-14). However, it wasn’t long after, when Fleetwood where penalised for a string of infringements giving West Park a scoring opportunity, which they took (25-14). Stalemate pursued for 10-15 mins, with no one able to breach each other defences, but with a number of good breaks by Fleetwood’s Ali Cheal, Will Gair and the rest of the back line, eventually lead to an excellent worked try by Ali (25-19). Giving Fleetwood a sniff of victory, all they had to do was win the ball. But with only a few minutes to go West Park had other ideas and went into their pre-planned routine of winning the game. With their forwards retaining the ball for long spells, starving Fleetwood of the ball. This worked well and with the last play of the game, a great inside pass from West Park’s Danny Green saw them glide over for another converted try. Giving West Park a flattering final score, 32-19.

Match report by Steve Spencer