Spalding vs. Kesteven (20/01/2018)

Kesteven made the short trip to Spalding full of hope after a strong win against Sleaford the previous week. Spalding, on a strong run of from since November were not going to be an easy opposition.

With only a couple of changes to the squad, from the previous week, Kesteven took to the field and immediately took play to Spalding. The opposition couldn’t handle the early pressure and the Black Army won a penalty in front of the post, Galloway took his opportunity to put Kesteven in the lead.

Spalding reacted to this and came back strongly and scored a well worked try. Kesteven were not to be deterred and upped their game, strong phase play led to a number of infringements from the Spalding defence and the referee was not impressed. With Spalding a man down, K’s again elected for the kick to close the deficit. The score now at 7-6 Kesteven again tried to up the tempo and when a pass to Palin was deliberately slapped down, the referee sent another man to the bin. K’s, now playing against a 13 man defence, sensed their opportunity. Draper put Turner in a hole and he was away for a try under the posts, Galloway converted. Kesteven now had a 13-7 lead but were finding it hard to break down the Spalding defence despite numerical advantage. Kesteven worked their way in to a good position and Cowley broke through to score under the posts, but the Referee brought play back due to him obstructing a defender. Spalding returned to full strength and just before half time created a well worked try to score. This was converted to give Spalding a 14-13 lead at half-time.

With the game balanced on a knife edge, Kesteven knew if they were to get anything out of this game they would have to work hard. Within 3 minutes K’s had earned a kickable penalty and took the opportunity, again Galloway hit the mark and gave K’s the lead. Kesteven kept the pressure on and the next play was one of the moments of the season. Good passing skills in the backline worked the ball out to Tweddle who broke through a hole near the left wing, closely supported on the outside by Cowley. Cowley switched inside and with a late call Tweddle threw an overhead pass to put Cowley away for a try. Galloway again converted. 23-14 up, Kesteven were now in the driving seat. From the restart, Purvis gathered and passed to Cowley who charged up the wing. Kesteven earnt a lineout in the Spalding 22 and kept the pressure on. Some clever play worked the ball out to Palin who passed inside to Turner to give Kesteven a 28-14 lead with 22 minutes to go.

The next 22 minutes showed the teams progression. Composure and confidence were evident as K’s kept Spalding pinned in their 22. Forcing turnovers at breakdowns and in the scrum Kesteven were not going to let go of the lead.

Kesteven worked hard and were unlucky not to get the bonus point, but it was progress from previous weeks. Cowley, Turner, Purvis & Tweddle ran hard and big hits from Turner and Webster kept the defence strong. In the backs, Galloway and Halliday linked up well and accurate kicking from Galloway kept the team moving forwards. This was a well earned 4 points and could prove crucial at the end of the season.

Team was: T Price, B Hall, J Dingley, D Halliday, J Palin, C Galloway, A Draper, W Pert, R Sheardown, G Purvis, J Cowley, D Tweddle, T Webster, R Armstrong, D Turner.

Replacements: H Cox, A Brown, S Stedman.