Sunday 24th March 2019 Success for the Ladies

A short trip up the A6 on a very pleasant sunny Sunday morning, Fleetwood took 18 players plus the usual band of energetic supporters. With a good pre-game warm up session, Fleetwood started the game strongly. Not allowing Vale out of their own half for the first 14 minutes, strong running by Steph Goodwin made good metres to get close to the Vale try line. However, with a slight handling error from Fleetwood, Vale capitalised and ran the full length of the pitch to put the first points on the board. 5-0, not converted.
This was a wake-up call for Fleetwood, now they got their heads together and put even more pressure on the hosts. With a scrum in Vale’s 22 area, a strong pick up and run from Number 8, Abbey White, put the forward pack on the front foot which was rewarded with a try by Steph Goodwin in the 22nd minute. 5-5, not converted.
Now there was no stopping the forward pack. Good strong running and tackling gave our second try in the 26th minute by Kate Lancaster. 5-10, not converted.
Some substitutions soon followed which allowed Fleetwood to keep dominant for the rest of the first half which ended 5-10.

The second half started strong with good support play and relentless tackling, now Fleetwood were getting into their stride. The forwards were dominant and made good ground, then releasing to the back which worked well for number 15, Elaine Greenhalgh, who after a bit of a struggle managed to ground the ball over the try line to make it 5-15, not converted.
Vale were now under constant pressure and Fleetwood were playing some excellent rugby. Emma Gardener scored shortly afterwards to make it 5-20 and was converted by Steph Goodwin to make it the final score of 5-22.

A hard fought win for Fleetwood. Vale of Lune never gave up to the very bitter end. Well done to all players from both teams and looking forward to our rematch in a few weeks.

Report by smiley
Paul Stapleton, Coach.