MALTON TAKE FIVE TRIES AND POINTS.
James Knock
A slight breeze, sun peeping through the clouds, and a surface miraculously recovered from the hammering of three weeks ago, courtesy of our ground staff, led us to hope for an entertaining afternoon of rugby. We were not disappointed!
On 3 minutes Bulmer opened Malton’s account with a 25 metre penalty when Consett strayed offside. As the teams settled down Consett showed that they were at minimum the equal of Malton at set piece occasionally gaining advantage by twisting and boring in the front row behind the man with the whistle’s back.
Following a break from Fothergill Malton hit the visitor’s red zone and left after 3 phases when the unsung grafter Lowry popped over for 7 points on 13 minutes.
Four minutes later Malton heeled a scrum on the stand side in their 20 metre area and broke blind heading to the football end. The fullback made good yardage but ignored his winger who had clear ground ahead of him and the advice from the dugout ringing in his ears was to shout and demand the ball.
Consett turned over the ball and gained a penalty but ignored the points on offer and eventually spilled the ball .
On 23 minutes they rectified the above taking a fine 30 metre penalty to register on the scoreboard 10-3.
Another break from the home no15 on 30 minutes again had the right winger silently hoping for a feed but none came. However moments later his midfielder taking pity passed to him and finally Bell showed his paces and made 20 metres.
On 35 minutes Malton moved rapidly up the clubhouse touch line via Read and Stephenson who laid the ball back and with the pack in full cry two phases later they laid on a simple trot over the whitewash for the benefit of Fothergill to take the half time score to 17-3.
Consett opened the second half with a penalty attempt from 32 metres out which just sailed wide. Malton moved down to the visitors 20 metre area and a promising scrum came to nothing with a penalty awarded against the home front row with Featherstone now on the pitch leading the collective scratching of heads and perplexion showing on their faces.
Opportunities to move the score along against a side 6 places below and 40 league points behind were there for the taking in the opening 15 minutes of this half but the finishing touches were just out of reach.
However on 53 minutes Malton sprang to life when a penalty award was wisely converted to make it a 3 score gap and following a request from the stand to up their game and go for the two tries and with them the bonus point the team did as asked.
On 56 minutes Fothergill found his patient winger Bell who passed on to Foan for a regulation 7 pointer.
Ten minutes later the try bonus was secured when Fothergill broke through some indifferent tackles to score under the sticks from 45 metres out.
On 70 minutes Malton went down to 14 men with Dunn collecting a yellow card and Consett took the opportunity to register a consolation 7 points.
The scoring was completed with a solid solo unconverted try from Head who belies his stature with a gritty and forceful approach to the task in hand, and Malton finished the game on 39 points 1 more than scored in late November at Consett.
Currently sixth in the table looks good on paper but the final four fixtures include two of the current top three, and two below us 3 and 5 points behind both with games in hand.
Malton with a little bit of fine tuning in the finishing department should be equal to the the task ahead and one hopes a mid table position come April 23rd.
In two weeks time we travel to Morpeth and I hope as many of our travelling support as can be mustered will make it up the A 19./A1.
Malton: Ali Fothergill, Jacob Stephenson, Tom Foan, James Bulmer, Will Bell, Tom Hoggard, Paul Angus, Liam Vaughan, Nick Salisbury, John Lumley, Charlie Read, Will Dunn, Tom Lowry, Jacob Head, Sam Triffitt (c).
Subs: Caleb Barret, Sean Emms, Rob Featherstone, (all used)
Scorers: Lowry 1 try
Fothergill 2 tries
Foan 1 try
Head 1try
Bulmer 4 cons 2 pens.
in our other game on Saturday the Super2s lost out to BP 48 - 34.
