Match Report by: Steve Dorrington

Forward Dominance Destroys Leigh
 
Following yet another week that forced coaches Kennedy & Dorrington to ring the changes the game plan was also adjusted to accommodate these changes. Andrew Signal and Dan E Jones both made their debuts and did not disappoint.
 
The Blues reverted to not so total rugby by means of power and punishment against a potentially lively Leigh side.
 
New Brighton looked comfortable in the early exchanges up front and after just 6 minutes had a penalty converted by fly half Steve Dean, following good pressure from the forwards and battering ram Joel Parker who acted as a ninth forward, carrying the ball back to his hungry for ball back row.
 
New Brighton well on top in the restart with line out going really well, Phil Buckley taking his chance well, with some fabulous throwing in which delighted the athletic Campbell who was demonstrating some fine movement and handling. The two props were also chipping in by taking the Leigh scrum apart, Mark Dorrington also popping up on the shoulder of his half backs to carry the ball through the Leigh defense to get the Blues on the front foot.
 
Following another of those dominant scrums, the Blues pack secured the ball just outside of the Leigh 22, Kati picked up with the powerful Toupou immediately at hand to set up a maul with which the Blues pack stuck to like glue and charged up field for Kati to finish off this excellent drive, Dean missed the conversion.
 
Leigh starting to get frustrated due to not being able to secure any ball by their forwards and reverted to different tactics, their loose head prop was dispatched to the sin bin for a cheap shot punch from behind on the excellent Campbell, this clearly should have been a straight red card, however the yellow card probably saved the player from severe retribution by the angry New Bright pack.
 
Half Time Score New Brighton 8 Leigh 0.
 
In the second half Leigh started well and almost immediately from the kick off Leigh put ball through hands for the fist time in the game and their outside centre, who was clearly in front of his full back who chipped the ball directly into his hands, ran in like a train to finish the move off.
 
The Blues now wounded by this score upped their game and the forwards were absolutely battering their opposition, giving Ali Childs, who had a fine game at scrum half, a fabulous platform to provide the catalyst for runners or provide his half back partner Dean crisp quick ball. Following yet another quick ball to Dean, the fly half cleverly feigned to move the ball wide, dropped the ball on the outside of his foot and penetrated the Leigh defence and Ollie Perryman raced through the line to outpace the covering Leigh full back to touch down. Dean added the extras to make the score 15 - 5 to the Blues.
 
From the kick off the forwards gathered and off they went, charging up the pitch again, with a driving maul, which rolled off to create ruck ball, on to the runner, quick pick, another maul and 4o meters gained. Following the scrum the Blues set up another maul, but this time Leigh were able to stop it by taking it to ground, the referee did not like this action and awarded the Blues a penalty and dispatched the culprit to the bin. Dean duly obliged by slotting his shot at goal to extend the lead to 18 points to 5.
 
The game continued in the same vein with Forward dominance and following some fine interplay and changing the point of attack Kati drove over the gain line and offloaded to a rampaging Loa Toupou who then sprinted through the defensive line and frightened the Leigh fullback with his size and pace to crash over, Dean, you guessed it added the extras to extended New Brighton's lead to 25 points to 5.
 
Leigh gained a consolation try right on the final whistle following some slick movement in their backline, who would operate really well if they could secure enough quality ball.
 
Final score New Brighton 25 Leigh 10
 
The man of the match award went to Andrew Signal for a fine gutsy display on his debut, Campbell would have received the award but had slipped from the club prior to the award being given out (it was his round).
 
Steve Dorrington commented after the game that although not totally pleased with the events of the week in full, he was pleased with the win and pleased that the team followed the game plan, which was adjusted just before kick off "the players responded to the change well"! Steve gave praise to his brother Mark, Rampaging blindside wing forward Loa Toupou, Captain and leader by example Kati, in form Paul Campbell and the energetic Josh Bates for causing their opposite numbers major problems all day. Steve was also pleased with the half back combination of Ali Childs and Steve Dean who both had a functional display. Steve added that although the league and promotion may be out of our hands, we will fight to the death, you never know what may happen and as can be seen by our results Hartsfield is a bit of a fortress again these days...........................but what on earth happens when we travel, if you know the answer to this please let me know on the website forum?
 
The Blues 2's take on a Romanian touring team on the magnificent Hartsfield pitch on Wednesday evening for a 7.30 KO, come on down and have a look at the Blues emerging talent, you will see some colts in action!

Makeshift side rally well in second half

 

Match Report by: Wyn Williams

Team:  15.  Gareth Jones,  14.  Gareth Simpson,  13. Joe Bowmer,  12. Joel Parker,  11. Oliver Perriman,  10. Ali Child,  9. Alan Hesketh,  1.  Mark Dorrington,  2. Josh Bates,  3. John Brotherton,  4. Ryan Stead,  5. Paul Campbell,  6. Loa Toupou,  7. Wayne Clayton,  8. Kati Tuipulotu.
Replacements: Tom Goulding,  Lee McCourt,  Phil Buckley.

A much changed side, with several positional changes, were forced on the Blues for this difficult trip to Stockport, who were determined to reverse their first defeat of the season at Hartsfield in a league/Cheshire Cup double in October.  Gareth Jones retained his place at full-back in place of the injured Hopkins, Bowmer moved in to outside centre and Ali Child replaced the holidaying Dean at stand-off.  In the pack, the resourceful and energetic Bates once again filled in at hooker for the absent Mullen with Clayton returning at open-side. 

Right from the outset, Stockport, realising where the visitors’ weaknesses were, attacked with pace, width and considerable skill.  They were rewarded with a try by winger Newton within two minutes.  Although the left winger failed to convert his own try, a lead of 5 – 0 but more importantly a blue print for continuing success gave Stockport opportunities which they used very effectively for the rest of the first period.  Whilst there were some inexcusably poor tackles by individuals, the main problem for the visitors was either depletion or misalignment in their wide defences.  Having had no opportunity to practice their defensive line-up, nor an organising presence to communicate on the hoof, this deficiency was evident until half time.  Another clean break through a dog-legged defence gave the supporting openside Chapman a try under the posts which Newton converted to give the home side a healthy lead of 12 – 0 after just 15 minutes.  Some clever interplay between the back-row and half-backs and a successful conversion increased the Blues’ deficit to 19 – 0 with still less than a quarter of the match played.

New Brighton now had their best period of the half thus far and attacked the home line with some gusto, mainly through their energetic and effective forward drives. A strong burst by Loa ended with Kati just held up over the line.  They were not to be denied and Campbell burst through after another effective drive by the whole pack.  Jones converted to reduce the arrears to 19 – 7 after 33 minutes.  This stimulated the home side to redouble their efforts and only excellent anticipation and pace allowed Perriman to win the race for a touchdown after more resourceful play from the classy home backline.  However another clean break through the centre gave Newton an easy run in for his second try, sufficiently wide out to make the conversion difficult, thus giving the Davenport outfit a lead of 24 -7 after 36 minutes.  This move was replicated 5 minutes later for the grateful Newton to complete an excellent hat trick.  It was the Blues who were grateful to hear referee Tempest’s whistle ending a torrid half from their viewpoint.

Half Time  Stockport  29 – 7  New Brighton

A Gatlandesque half time talk by coach Steve Dorrington heralded an amazing comeback by New Brighton, reminiscent of that at HQ a week before.  Despite the huge increase in their efforts and skill, the Blues could not quite match that famous result as Stockport refused to implode as their more illustrious compatriots had a week earlier.  The visiting side pressured the home line continually from the kick off and were rewarded with a penalty by Jones after 44 minutes to reduce the deficit to 29 – 10.  The home team were clearly rattled by the newly offensive visitors and full back Drew was yellow-carded for a high tackle on his lively opposite number.  More handbags followed as the Stockport pack, now being denied much possession to feed their classy backs, desperately tried to reassert some dominance.  Despite their lack of ball, they still defended admirably and had clearly done their homework on New Brighton’s strengths.  However, the fact that on Sunday morning there will be some sore bodies in eastern Cheshire recovering from big impacts on Kati and Loa will be of little consolation to those in the west of the county.  New Brighton now have little chance of realising their dream of bouncing back to North 1 after just one season. 

An injury to Goulding, who, after 30 minutes of the opening period, had replaced Mark Dorrington, playing his first game for some time, saw the irrepressible old Barbarian return to the field for the final ten minutes.  A final flourish by the visiting side created an extraordinary penalty try.  An excellent move resulted in a home player holding back a Blues’ attacker without the ball with a clear run to the line in prospect.  Instead, it was the referee who strode the 25 metres to the posts to award the score.  An easy conversion by Jones and the deficit was reduced to just 10 points.  Despite being unable to further reduce this margin, New Brighton had to be content with winning the second half 10 - 0.

Final Score  Stockport 29 – 17  New Brighton

Yet another strange match of two halves!  The defensive frailties, so obvious in first half, were clearly rectified, perhaps Steve’s half-time talk was more Shaun than Warren!  The pack worked hard throughout the match but, undoubtedly, their dominance of possession in the second period was a big contributing factor to the clean sheet.