28 th November

Pontefract Pythons   20  -  Stocksbridge   18

Man of the match - Luke Banfield

Scorers - TRIES Brown ,Bannerz Smith CON Senior PEN Senior

Saturday 28 November 2009 Yorkshire Division Five Pontefract Pythons 20 Stocksbridge 18 The Pythons triumphed in a hard fought league game that had everything, endeavour, classy tries, sending offs and serious injuries. Although this season the Pythons are struggling with inexperience the old endeavour and spirit is there in abundance with old heads Simon Bickerdike and Colin Swift helping captain Phil Liddle mould an exciting young side. Despite going down to an early penalty from the visitors and withstanding some early pressure down the hill the home side always looked in control and fine defence from Craig Liddle and Rich Armstrong kept their line in tact. At the other end veteran winger John Stevenson was causing Stocksbridge plenty of problems and was unlucky not to score twice. Despite losing influential scrum half Oskar Gurtler to injury the Pythons looked impressive and the improving young starlet Luke Banfield took over the mantel of playmaker ably assisted by debutants Jimmy Smith and Johnny Brown. The home side were first to cross the line when Dave Brown picked up from number eight and crashed through two defenders to score. They then increased their lead when Banfield fed Smith from a scrum and the young stand off jinked his way around three defenders to score. Just before half time the visitors scored a converted try of their own to take a rather undeserved lead at the break . A rousing half time talk saw the Pontefract side start the second half with the slope in their favour and forwards John Trevorrow and Rich Liddle and center Matt Jones used this to their advantage with some determined running . They regained the lead with a fantastic try Luke Banfield fed Johnny Brown who skipped and danced around defenders before handing back to the supporting Banfield who outpaced the cover defence. Liam Senior added a fine conversion followed by a tricky penalty. With a10 point lead the home side looked to have things wrapped up but the last 15 minutes were full of drama . A bout of handbags turned into a mass brawl and the visitors were perhaps unlucky to be the only side with a player shown the red card. Stocksbridge then lost a prop to a serious rib injury but such adversity galvanised a comeback which lead to a converted try under the posts. Pythons held on with some heroic defence aided by the introduction of tough tacklers Colin Swift and Ian Holland A deserved win which will hopefully spark further confidence in the weeks to come.

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Report by Flatcapper