Away Day Blues

Saturday 7th January 2023
Regional 2 North Midlands

Long Eaton 21

Leek 19

Second placed Leek kicked off the new year away in Derbyshire to league leaders Long Eaton. After two postponed games, Sutton Coldfield (H) and Leicester Forest (H), and the Christmas break the Staffordshire side were keen to get back on the pitch. Conditions at West Park were mild and blustery, with the sun bright and low due to the later 3pm kick off.
Head coach Booth named a strong 18, Williams, Cheadle (C) and Joe Newton-Taylor made up the starting front row. Booth and Hine were at lock, Kidd and Hunt started on the flanks with Powell moving to no.8. Brothers Liam and Rob McDermott made up the half backs, Midwinter returned to inside center partnered by Nadin at outside center. Brereton, Jack Newton-Taylor and Byrne were selected as the back three with Armstrong-Bainbridge, Milner and Gorman as the finishers.
Leek kicked off and from the first phase the game had an edge and importance about it, neither side wanting to make a mistake, several phases later LE did, Hunt with a great turnover in the middle of the park and Byrne kicking the penalty into the LE 22mtr. Leek set up a maul from the lineout with a try seemingly on the cards, the LE defence stood strong and the maul collapsed, pressure off. It was at this point in the game that LE started to impose their phase game moving the ball from side to side, eventually breaking the line to move within 10mtrs of Leeks try line. Leeks defence stood resilient with, man of the match, Oliver Powell turning the ball over after a number of phases, allowing Leek to exit and release some pressure. On 27mins LE won a penalty and kicked to touch, after an altercation, with the home sides touch judge, Jack NT was Yellow Carded and sin binned for dissent. This proved to be a pivotal point in the game. LE won another penalty under the posts but opted to scrum, their backs cleanly executing a move to score in the corner with their extra man. The conversion was good, 7-0.

The away side then pulled themselves back into the game with some good phase play moving deep into the Long Eaton half but still couldn’t find a way to score. Then at 39mins Powell crashed over in the left corner to finish off a great team try. The conversion narrowly missed and the halftime score stood at 7-5.

With everything to play for, the second half commenced under floodlights. Unfortunately, it was LE who had the first score of the half, with their experienced 10 being tackled just short of the line, but reaching out to score near the posts. The conversion was successful, and the score moved to 14-5. For the next 30 mins Leek had the better of the game, with the majority of it being played in the Derbyshire sides half. Leek visited the Long Eaton half numerous times but could not find a way over the line. LE punished the visitors for this and on 70mins after a kick to the corner and strong maul, one of the LE pack, picked from the back of the maul bursting through two tackles to score. Again, the shot at goal was converted 21-7.

From the kick LE won a penalty for Leek hands in the ruck. As the LE number 9 tried to tap and go Jack NT stopped the player from doing so illegally, with the referee warning skipper Ed Cheadle regarding the number of penalties Leek were conceding, he had pulled the second yellow card for Leeks no.14 out of his pocket resulting in the winger being sent off. Leek now looked dead and buried with 10 minutes left to play.

Although the odds were greatly against them, Booth rallied his men, as seen countless times over the past two seasons to fight back and the Moorlanders nearly pulled off a stunning feat. Scoring two good team tries through Lee Williams and George Hunt, with a yellow card being issued to a LE winger, for deliberately knocking the ball on. Midwinter successfully converted both kicks, taking the score to 21-19. And earning Leek what could be a valuable losing bonus point.

The loss means Leek drop to 3rd place on 49 points (13 games played), Sutton Coldfield moving up to 2nd on 50 points (13 games played) and Long Eaton stretching their gap at the top in 1st place on 55 points (14 games played).

On Saturday 14/01/23, Leek welcome Newark to Esterchem Park 2.15pm KO, looking for revenge over the Nottinghamshire side who were victorious in the fixture at Kelham Road earlier in the season. We are also hosting the après ski themed social event post-match.

Author: Will Midwinter