Wacko Jacko Whacks em in!

The game was moved over to King Georges pitches as the hallowed turf was deemed unplayable and Fly half Paul Bamber was quick to point out it would be a game of two halves with both the wind and the sun being to Fleet’s disadvantage in the first half. Despite this the home team were to score first after a great attack down the left, Ricky Newton fed Scott Richardson, recently returned from a long layoff through injury, who broke the gain line and made another ten metres. Quick ruck saw Pete Benny take the ball from scrumhalf Craig Doherty, but was stopped just a metre from the line. Then a pick and go from the impressive Jake Watts saw him drive over for a converted try 7-0.
Clitheroe then hit back with a penalty and a well worked try and conversion to make it 7-10 but Fleet’ had the last word as a scrappy first half was brought to a close, Jackson converted a penalty 10-10 halftime.
The talk at halftime was one of how “too many cooks spoil the broth”, with everybody realising there were plenty of voices on the pitch but not enough of them shouting words of encouragement. The second half kicked off with Fleetwood confident they could make inroads and use the weather as a sixteenth man but unfortunately someone forgot to tell the weather as the sun was hidden behind cloud cover and the wind was subsiding faster than Manager Chris Travis does at the bar on a Saturday night!
The second half was threatening to become another scrappy encounter with both teams making handling errors and giving away silly penalties, however another two penalties for Fleetwood and one from Clitheroe ensured the scores kept ticking, although scrappy there are several players worthy of mention, none more so than Scott Richardson who was superb both in attack and defence and Paul Bamber whose experience was a calming influence when tempers were boiling.
With fifteen or so minutes left Tom Evans came on, giving Jim Haigh a well deserved rest and was put to the test straight away as his opposite number put a ball into the clouds it seemed, Evans took the ball with ease before sidestepping two Clitheroe forwards and going on a mazy thirty metre run before giving a great pass to Bamber who raced forty metres to score a great try 23-13.
Fleet’ were now applying all the pressure and with Jake Watts and Graham Wilkinson tackling immensely and Pete Benny and Andy Holme very effective in the loose it wasn’t long before Fleetwood were searching for another try, this time Evans drawing the outside centre before offloading to Jackson for him to have the final say of the second half too, running thirty metres to score in the corner 28-13. Manager Chris Travis said it was good to get back to winning ways and that they must take this into next week’s game away at Leigh, this was echoed by captain Ricky Newton who said they showed today that they can turn possession into results as long as they stay calm and believe in themselves. Both Chris and Ricky voted Jake Watts as Man of the match saying it was the best game he had played for the club.

Report by Mick Maher (2nd Team Linesman – Order of the Bar 1st Class)