Dramatic Draw

Fleetwood went into their game against Keswick with one of the strongest squads they have had all season. Keswick kicked off and tried to use their younger, fitter and faster lads to exploit the spaces and out wide.

To their detriment Fleetwood allowed this to happen for too long. After 20 minutes of constant defending, Keswick found the gap to score. conversion missed 0 v 5.

Fleetwood used this as a wake up call and started to use their much larger forwards to dominate Keswick in open play, the break down and in the scrum.

Fleetwood worked themselves up the pitch and won a penalty in kicking range. Jackson took the penalty, but sadly the ball was pushed wide by the strong wind.

Just on the stroke off half time, Keswick got sloppy in their defence. This allowed Fly Half Josh Pearce to charge down the ball and pick up the pieces to score. Conversion by Jackson. 7 v 5.

Half Time: 7 V 5

Feeling over the moon that their efforts had been fruitful so far, Fleetwood went on the attack. The forwards used their size and experience advantage to force their way up the pitch.

After a series of phases and dominating the scrum, No. 8 Mike Jackson crashed over from short range. Unfortunately again Jackson missed his mark due to the wind. 12 v 5.

This was a well deserve lead for the Home side. What happened next though wasn't to plan. Whether it was overconfidence or players coming off with injuries, but Keswick made their charge up the pitch. The official gave the away side a very questionable decision on Fleet's 5m line. In the confusion, Keswick took a quick tap penalty and scored a converted try under the posts. 12 v 12.

Level pegging again and all to play for again. Fleetwood battered Keswick back into their own half. Over-zealousness caused Fleetwood to give away a penalty. Confusingly Keswick elected to end the game by kicking it into touch.

Full Time: 12 v 12

Despite the slightly disappointing ending to the game, this was a determined and spirited performance for the second team against a strong Keswick side. More performances like this will result in wins.

The game was marked by a returning Danny Atkin after a year or two out with a nasty hip injury, Nautical College Lad George Kinnaird making his club debut and Young Colt Tom Greenwood making his 2nd team debut.

Scorers

Tries: Pearce; Jackson.
Conversion: Jackson.

Man of the Match

This was a bit of a difficult decision this week as everyone who played all gave a solid to excellent performance. After discussions between Manager Travis and Skipper Foden, two name kept cropping up, one being Keane McCann who put in a very mature performance for an 18 year old, but unfortunately was pipped to the award by the returning Atkin who was just a class above everyone on the pitch.

The Weekly Sam Pook Report

Keeping in tune with the positive tone, Sam played a full 80 minutes, looked fantastic in the scrums (Mostly down to his props) and kept his mouth shut mostly throughout the game. Needs work on his line outs. Seemed to be more focused on getting a new Facebook profile picture. Solid 6.6 out of 10.

Photos

Link 1
Link 2

Next Week

Next week, the second team have a week off. Next game is away at West Park on the 9th February.

Squad: 15. Macauley; 14. Hearne; 13. Kinnaird; 12. Hall; 11. O'Hare; 10. Pearce; 9. O'Driscoll; 1. O'Hara; 2. Pook; 3. Foden; 4. Gregson; 5. McCann; 6. Gornall; 7. Blunn; 8. Jackson; 16. Scarrisbrick; 17. Atkin; 18. Greenwood.