13 man Pethy hold on for first away win of the season

26/09/09 - Tribute Western Counties West: Tiverton 7 v 13 North Petherton

Report by Lloyd Williams

Pethy made one of their shortest away trips to Tiverton, arriving well before the home team, Pethy sat and prepared to the match ahead.

Starting well Pethy soon began to dominate up front, and it was only unforced errors that were costing Pethy good field position. Early on Pethy were awarded a penalty and usual kicker Tom Williams stepped up, in missing the kick, he aggravated a leg injury and had to stand down as kicker, soon after on 15mins, Lloyd Williams slotted a penalty, giving the visitors an early lead. It wasn’t long before he had another attempt that just missed. From the resulting 22m restart, the home side got to the ball first and knocked it backwards, straight into the hands of James Lees who set off towards the line and eventually dived over to score. Lloyd Williams was just wide with the conversion. James Lees got on the score sheet again, just before half time, finishing off a great team try, where the ball went through both forwards and backs down the blind side. Williams again was wide with the conversion.

With in 5 minutes of the second half, as the Pethy pack continued dominate the scrum, as the first scrum came up a fight broke out. Eventually after more players got involved it was stopped and Matt Angel was shown a red card for his part. This meant powerhouse Modrzynski moved to front row, but even with one man down the Pethy forwards held their own and still managed to disrupt the home side scrum.

The game continued much as the first, most of the play was in the middle of the pitch, and the penalty count by both teams was gradually rises to the frustration of players and crowd.

After a driving scrum which had seemed to have broken up the home 8 picked and dived for the line, but he was well stopped by Matt Brown, but he was deemed to have come in from the side and was yellow carded. Leaving Pethy to battle the last 10 with just 13 on the field, the clock was on 82 minutes, but this was due to several injuries throughout the second half. From the very next play, the home side were awarded a penalty try, which they quickly converted. It was given as the Pethy flanker broke their bind on the scrum, which seemed strange as they had not flankers at this point.

Strong and sometimes frantic defence kept the home side out, giving Pethy a well deserved away win.

Pethy played well and did enough to win and looked comfortable for 70mins, they looked their best when the forwards and backs linked together. They were rarely allowed to play their expansive game as the phases of play were limited by the sound of the whistle. The teams defence was outstanding, Pethy for the majority of the match dealt with the home side as their tried both attacking the fringes and spreading the ball wide.

Pethy missed 10 kickable points this week and will be hoping for a better display with the boot in forthcoming games, as it may turnout to make the difference between getting a result and not.

It was great for Pethy to have such a large following of supporters present, making the presence know throughout the game. With this weeks tough home fixture against Truro, Pethy will be hoping for more of the same.

HT: 0-13

Tries: Lees (2)

Cons:

Pens: L.Williams

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. L.Williams, 13. Chris Burge, 12. Webber, 11. Goodwin, 10. Hallaran, 9. M.Ranson, 1. Angel, 2. S.Williams, 3. Prescott, 4. Gingell, 5. Modrzynski, 6. Lees, 7. M.Brown, 8. Pettingell. Reps (Unused): McNeillie, Sellick, Tracey