Aldridge lose in the league

With wind and slope behind us we made a decent enough start. A couple of penalty attempts were missed but after 10 minutes a slick feed from Adam Reed, released Nick Yates down the short side who galloped over unopposed into the corner. We continued to press, making territorial inroads but never quite managing to sustain the intensity to make it count. Mid-way through the half within the home side’s 22, a dropped ball was snatched up by the opposition who swiftly moved it wide to the winger who knifed through a porous defence to score close to the posts. It was evens again and the ease of the score should have sounded alarm bells for what was to come later. An Alex Yates penalty some 5 minutes on put us back in the lead but again another soft try – converted – was gifted to make it 12 – 8 as the interval approached. An attacking lineout was converted into a catch and drive that was eventually closed out by Ben Drinkwater diving over between the posts. Harry Baldock added the extras to make it 12 – 15 at the break. We were against slope and breeze in the second half but were still optimistic. We had a sustained period of forward pressure within the first period and hammered away at the opposition line. Alex Reed bulldozed his way over and grounded the ball but it was deemed to have been held up. We were penalised for debating the controversy and whilst the dispute continued the home side took it quickly, a boot down field and some hard following-up got them over between the posts for an easy conversion. We seemed to implode at this point and became increasingly mesmerised by the pace of the opposition backs who, counter attacking from deep positions, went on to post a further three tries – one converted. It was all over at this juncture but as the game ran out we re-discovered some momentum and continuity resulting in a brief spell of ascendancy that culminated in Dan McKenna holding off tackles to touch down beneath the posts – Harry Baldock converting right on the final whistle