Dream team romp home

Pete Benny made an outstanding contribution in the first 30 seconds before being replaced by Mike Wilson. Lee Storton and Andy Holme impressed in the second row taking the ball into contact with confidence, ably supported by back-row partners Danny Tomlinson and Danny Maher. Mark Evans, Henry Turner and Steve Buzza held the front row firm though Evans appeared to be suffering from hamstring problems-usually reserved for the backs! After approx. 5 mins the ball was worked wide to left winger Luke Wilson who made no mistake by beating the last 2 defenders to score in the corner. Soon after Fleet’s dominance led to slick handling and Danny Tomlinson gliding through the defence for a try converted by Scott Richardson. Tomlinson was having a fine game taking good line-out ball as well as appearing in the back line to good effect and making telling tackles in midfield. Fellow flanker Danny Maher was also prominent in all aspects of loose play both carrying the ball forward and making turnovers at the break-down and was also the next player to get on the score-sheet after good inter-play between forwards and backs. Ormskirk had few forays into the Fleetwood half though did come away with a penalty which was converted to give a half time score of 26-3 to the home side following a well-deserved and long-awaited try for talisman hooker Henry Turner.
In the second half, Fleet continued to dominate and attempt to please the crowd, some of whom were demanding nothing less than perfection in all areas of the game. The visitors defended valiantly and in fact broke away to score a try of their own but this did not disrupt the flow of the game. Luke Wilson ran in a second try in the corner after again showing pace and composure. Alex Seymour filled the no.9 shirt amply and provided a good service to his fellow half-back, the youthful Paul Bamber. Centres Newton and Orwin combined well to move the ball wide and in fact skipper Ricky Newton crashed through the defence to score from 10 metres out part way through the half.
Craig Doherty replaced Scott Richardson at full-back with young Alex Redfern given an opportunity to show his potential in the pack replacing Lee Storton in the second half. It wasn’t long before Doherty got on the score sheet before Bamber set off on a 60 metre sprint for the line as the defence appeared to open up in front of him.
A fine team try followed with inter-passing between Tomlinson, Maher and others, the move finally rounded off by Alex Seymour to cap a most satisfactory afternoon for the green and gold xv. Michael Dewhirst came on for the final quarter whilst young Jamie Beecher returned to Fleetwood colours having valiantly offered to play for the opposition for the majority of the match. Danny Tomlinson and his red-socked counterpart enjoyed a well-deserved 10 minute break during the second half at the referee’s insistence though the normally quiet Danny couldn’t understand why.
All in all a good performance but Fleet will surely face tougher tests in their run in towards the end of the season. Michael Jackson finished the game with 6 conversions though met his match in his opposite number on the wing who was not ready to take a backward step!

Report by Ian Cameron