A Lesson in perseverance!

James Knock

Fine weather, a good surface and a healthy number of travelling supporters all contributed to an entertaining afternoon in the wealthy suburbs of the Metropolitan City of Leeds.
Moortown kicked off and the very early signs were encouraging for Malton as they retained possession and moved the ball about looking for openings. However in the fourth minute Malton’s 15 was caught in possession and yielded a penalty which was quickly tapped and resulted in an unconverted try in the corner.

Six minutes later with Moortown showing their mettle, recycling good ball and their big powerful runners in  both backs and forwards strutting their stuff a porous Malton midfield let through a 7 pointer.
Ominously the above was repeated two minutes later and another 7 points left Malton 19 points to nil down in a lot less than a quarter of match time.

To say Malton were on the ropes would be an understatement but the leaders in the pack and quiet controlled words from coach Crockett put some backbone into the team and a drive down to Moortown’s red zone resulted in quality ball and Malton’s 10 breaking left trying to find the gap close to the touch line. Tackled short but demonstrating what a good player he can be he got to his feet quickly and resuming position another dart infield set up the pack for a Featherstone rumble and 7 points on sixteen minutes.

Four minutes later sadly for Moortown’s 12 a heavy tackle and recyclement through a ruck resulted in a dislocated ankle and a broken tib and fib which gave the players a twenty minute break.
On resumption with Moortown again with a surfeit of ball a try against the run of play was created by Bulmer attempting an intercept. He hit the ball with his body and with Moortown waiting for a whistle he and midfielder Finlinson followed up with the latter claiming the converted try.

Five minutes later again a leaky Malton midfield coupled with fine play from the home 6 led to a 7 pointer on thirty five minutes and a score line of 26–14 to the home side. Half time and a meeting with Crockett could not come soon enough!

Moortown opened the second half with plenty of possession and it wasn’t long before moving the ball left to right and back again through the hands created an opening on the wing for a 5 pointer in the corner.

In contrast Malton were attempting ambitious complicated training ground routines with long miss passes and pivot men but getting nowhere.

Then out of the mire Malton’s men manufactured two tries from broken play with one of them converted, both scored by the fullback to bring them back from the edge of the abyss, a score line of 31–26 and all to play for with twenty three minutes remaining on the clock.

However Moortown now tried the kicking game and a high ball on the left for their speedy burly winger was unaccountably not contested and he duly trotted in from 40 metres on sixty five minutes for 5 points.

With fifteen minutes left and Malton being turned inside out another 7 points on seventy minutes seemingly left Malton dead and buried.

But the calmness demonstrated in contrast to his predecessor by the new coach and the spirit this squad have shown pre season came through and the ever busy Lowry scored 10 metres to the right of the sticks for Poole to nervelessly add the 2 points.

Five minutes on the clock and with a try bonus in the bag, two tries minimum to draw the game or win with one of them converted was a tall ask, but this game yielded one more twist.

On eighty minutes the referee awarded Malton a penalty in roughly the same position as the previous successful conversion and signalled this to be the final play of the game. Poole stepped up to give his team a second bonus point and a lesson in perseverance to all on the touch lines.

Nick Salisbury celebrated joining the 200 club with the coach’s nomination as Malton’s man of the match. The presentation to mark his joining this select club will take place next week when we entertain Driffield at the Gannock.

Malton:   Ali Fothergill,  Jacob Tweddle,  Adam Finlinson,  Miles Duncan,  Nick Embleton,  James Bulmer,  Shane Poole,  Nick Salisbury,  Jacob Head,  Rob Featherstone,  Will Dunn,  Sean Emms,  Tom Smith,  Tom Lowry,  Will Hughes (c).

Subs:  Lewis Welch,  Tom Barker,  James Dempsey. 
All used.

Scorers: Featherstone  1try
                Finlinson  1 try
                Fothergill  2 tries
                Lowry  1 try
                Poole  4 cons, 1pen.