MALTON’S  FUEL TANKER ARRIVES LATE AT HALF TIME.

James Knock

After the warm balmy weather of September the shock of the cold and wet at the coal face of West Riding rugby hit Malton full in the face.

A much changed outfit took to the field at Scatcherd Lane with the added handicap of the withdrawal of key midfielder Foan during the warmup thus leaving only two subs.

Morley showed early intent throwing the ball with gay abandon left to right in their three quarters on the back of 85% possession and 80% territory.

Malton were not helped by a referee who in front of his assessor was very keen with his whistle on offences such as not rolling away when clearly trapped ( he must have studied French referees). This resulted in a very high penalty count which Malton did little to address and to aggravate the situation Fothergill earned a yellow for a chest high tackle riding up to the head area not downwards to the waist and below, a simple matter of technique.

This was compounded by poor kicking out of hand, failure to find touch, and putting the ball out on the full from drop out.

Morley scored at regular intervals on 4,8,25,31,and 40 minutes with 3,3,7,5,and7 points.

Malton had a purple patch in the final ten minutes of the half, however intense pressure failed to produce a visit to the host’s whitewash and thus give them some hope for the second half.

In truth with the amount of Morley possession and territory Malton were fortunate to finish the half only 25 points down due to their dogged perseverance in defence.

Malton’s fuel tanker arrived at half time, the contents of which transformed the Malton eight who now competed with vigour and spent large periods of the second half camped in Morley territory.

The worsening weather was not helpful and cold hands coupled with over ambitious kick passing contributed to the failure to convert the pressure into points.

Malton’s forwards stuck to the task and were rewarded with a converted try from Hughes on 52 minutes wide out after a Morley yellow.

Further pressure yielded little reward during the next 20 minutes and on 70 and 71 minutes Morley maroon shirts were bleached to a paler colour as two more yellow cards were earned by their no’s 3 and 10.

Malton should have capitalised at this stage but Morley held firm at scrum time when a straight eight man shove from the visitors on successive scrums should have resulted in a score from a set move or a visit by the referee to a spot under the crossbar.

On 78 minutes Angus was shown a yellow for minor scuffling but despite this Malton scored a 7 pointer through the the substitute Barker the extras belted over by Bulmer from wide out too little too late.

A losing bonus point was there for the taking but poor decision making when Malton had 2 extra men for 10 minutes was a decisive factor in coming away empty handed.

A study of the table demonstrates the importance of the bonus points even at this early stage and with 4 of them so far Malton find themselves in 7th place with a healthy points difference.

A week’s break to regroup and mend sore bodies at the local spa towns will be useful and a local Derby at the Gannock when we entertain Pocklinton is next on the menu on October 16th.

Malton:  Ali Fothergill,  Jacob Tweddle,  Will Bell,  Jacob Stephenson,  Matt Clarke,  James Bulmer,  Paul Angus,  Nick Salisbury,  Chris Owen,  Rob Featherstone,  Will Dunn,  Charlie Read,  Will Hughes,  Tom Lowry,  Sam Triffitt (c).

Subs:  Tom Barker(used),  John Richards (not used).

Scorers:  Hughes  1 try,
                 Barker    1 try,
                 Bulmer   2 cons.

A Big well done to ex Malton player Will Witty for his epic try and MOM performance at the AJ Bell this afternnon too.