Seymour bosses win for impressive Fleet'

The same squad of players were all available and Fleet also had the luxury of welcoming 1st XV regular Bobby Jones into the team after his week off socialising. Clitheroe won the toss and opted to play with the prevailing wind at their backs. Right from the start, Fleetwood’s game plan of keeping the ball in hand started to pay off with some clever link play from forwards and backs. It wasn’t long before a well worked move created an overlap on the left hand side and good hands from Andy Holme put Jones in for a score. The visitor’s second try came courtesy of an excellent solo effort from Alex Seymour. A line-out was tapped back to the scrum-half, who opted to take Clitheroe on all by himself, showing a variety of side-steps, power and some pace to score a classic try in the corner. Place kicking was proving tricky into the wind, but Fleetwood were happy with their 10-0 lead after only a quarter of the game. At this point Clitheroe started to get into the game and powerful runs from their forwards made good ground towards Fleetwood’s line. Fleetwood’s defence was excellent though, some crunching hits coming in from the likes of Scott Richardson, Mark Evans and the back-row. It wasn’t long before the constant pressure began to tell and the home side were awarded a penalty in front of the posts for offside, which they converted to narrow the gap to 10-3. Clitheroe were mixing their play up nicely with some aggressive running and long kicks – one of which resulted in a superb counter attack from the elusive Craig Doherty, who beat half a dozen Clitheroe players on a mazy 50m scamper. Fleetwood continued to use the ball and looked dangerous, however a couple of handling errors no doubt stopped the visitors from building their lead, as two possible tries were blown. On the stroke of half time the home side put together some clever phases of play and the pressure paid off with a nicely worked score from their back line. The try was converted to take the score to 10-all at half-time… game on!
Fleetwood made one change at the interval giving try machine Luke Wilson a run on the right wing in place of the hard working Michael Jackson. It wasn’t long before Wilson was in the thick of things – another well rehearsed passage of play and the ball was moved out wide to give the replacement winger a score. This time Scott Richardson nailed a sweet conversion to take the lead to 17-10. There was all to play for at this point and Clitheroe were fighting hard to keep in touch. More bruising runs from their tight five were met with resolute defence from the visitors. Fleetwood were trying to use the wind and play for territory, but the Clitheroe full back had other ideas as he ran the ball back with great skill, showing his pace to beat a handful of Fleetwood defenders. This movement nearly led to a try before the impressive Doherty made a last ditch ankle tap to save a certain try. Fleetwood’s attacking play was of a high standard all game. Their best worked try was undoubtedly one from a line out near half-way – after good ball was won by Danny Tomlinson, it was fed out to Danny Maher in midfield, who spun the ball on to Dan Orwin, who dummied his opposite man and cracked on the gas before touching down for a fantastic team score. Again, Richardson knocked over a good conversion. Clitheroe stuck to their task and managed to go over for a converted try in the corner to close the gap to 24-17. The game was still in the balance with 20 minutes to go, with Fleetwood keen to stamp their authority. The large Clitheroe pack were solid in the scrum, but began to tire and Fleetwood took full advantage by moving the ball at every opportunity. This led to a further try from Alex Seymour ???, before skipper Ricky Newton showed his all round game by peeling off a conversion from wide of the posts. Fleetwood opted to make changes with Marc Maher coming on for Scott Richardson, Neil Back for Alex Redford and the experienced pair of Jim Haigh and Michael Dewhurst enhancing the back line. From a scrum 15m out a sweetly timed backs move saw Dan Orwin pick a scything line through the opposition defence to touch down for another try. The final score came after scrum-half Seymour had spotted some space and produced a nicely weighted chip for Bobby Jones to scamper through and score in the corner. The conversion drifted just wide, but Fleetwood had produced an impressive 41-17 victory. A number of players stood out in this team performance; in the backs Alex Seymour’s distribution and vision helped to control Fleetwood’s attack and gutsy forward play from the likes of Lee Storton and Andy Holme ensured Fleetwood matched the bigger Clitheroe pack blow for blow.

Next week Leigh at home…

'Roving Reporter'