Sat 11 Jan 2020
On a day that was never going to be conducive to flowing rugby, because of the extremely stong westerly wind, Gos kicked off playing into that strong wind against visitors, Bishop Auckland, who were looking to impose a double defeat on us, following their victory at their ground on a gloriously sunny day! There was a great deal of defending to be done in the early part of the game, as Bish sought to take advantage of the conditions. Gos held out for the first ten minutes until a flowing passage of play by the visitors led to a score by winger, Chris Liddle, in the right hand corner. A magnificent conversion from wide out by Zach Hole, saw a 0-7 scoreline. This was to increase on 18 minutes when a forward driven push to the line saw skipper, Ross Daniel, score. This time the easier kick was missed (0-12). Despite a few promising forages by the home side, which, alas, came to nothing, the score stayed the same until the 34th minute, when another sustained passage of play led to a third visitors' try wide out on the left side by winger, Ewan Nattrass. Once again a mighty kick just had enough on it to convert, leaving the score at 0-19 approaching half-time. Gos No 8, Andy Black, was just stopped short, as was scrum-half, Dan Slater - this time illegally by a Bishop forward, who got a yellow card from referee, Tom Grayson. Half-time came with score still at 0-19.
The second-half started with Gos now having the benefit of the weather - although, as the skies blackened, the wing abated somewhat. Gos needed an early try, which, indeed, came after just five minutes, when centre, Jack Vening, rounded off a good attacking move to score on the right - the conversion was missed, but the score of 5-19 gave some encouragement to the home side. However, this score was almost immediately negated by Bishop, as some neat support play saw winger, Ewan Nattrass, score his second and their fourth, bonus-point try. The missed conversion left the score at 5-24. Again, only two minutes later, the hard grafting Gos lock, Marc Burton, was to power over under the posts for Dan Slater to convert (12-24). The comeback looked on and continued pressure by Gosforth saw replacement, Archie McMillan, speed away to score a third try under the posts on 25 minutes, for Dan Slater to convert again (19-24). Fifteen to go in the gathering gloom! However that elusive fourth, match equalling try was not to be achieved, despite mounting pressure. A lack of meaningful kicks to the bottom left hand corner (or Coffin Corner) from penalties made it even harder to put added pressure on Bishop - leaving the final score 19-24 and, disappointingly, only the one losing bonus point. There's always next week to close the gap at the bottom of the table. It will, however, need a Herculean effort to get the right result at high-flying Ponteland!
