Sat 29 Feb 2020
After an "is it on or off?" week because of the very inclement weather Gosforth welcomed visitors, Darlington, to Broadway West in a game that we really needed to win. The almost obligatory strong wind and the less likely sunshine were at our backs as we kicked off. Some early pressure on the visitors' line was eventually rewarded, as an unlikely, releaving kick deep downfield by lock, Marc Burton rolled into touch by the "22". From the resulting line-out a reckless tap back was pounced on by the ubiquitous prop, David "Robbo" Robinson, who scored wide out. The conversion looked unlikely into the cross- wind, but fly-half and our resident Kiwi, Devon Gurr, struck a perfect kick to make the score on 17 minutes 7-0 to Gos. This sparked Darlo into life and they created a few scoring opportunities, only to be thwarted by some doughty home defence. However, as play entered injury time, Darlo did manage to cross the home line for an unconverted try by Colin Rogers to leave the half-time score at 7-5.
So it was into the strengthening wind that Gos received the second-half kick-off. An early mistake ten metres out led to Darlington's rangey No 8, Impagliazzo Massimiliano (phew!), scoring by the posts for fullback, Adam Smith ( that was easier!), to put Darlington into the lead on 44 minutes (7-12). Very shortly after that their lead was increased to 12 points as centre, Robert Mather, again crossed by the posts for Adam Smith to do the honours again. With their tails well and truly up, Darlo scored again in the 55th and 58th minutes, when, firstly, Sean Flynn, and, then, Terry Martin scored with Adam Smith converting the first (7-31). As has happened in quite a few games this year, Gosforth then mounted some enormous pressure on the visitors' line, but just couldn't get over it, despite a succession of penalties inside the notorious "red-zone". In fact, the last 15 minutes were enacted within the visiors "22", but it wasn't until the 79th minute that all the pressure was finally rewarded (it must be added, a little fortuitously) as Jack Vening crossed in the right-hand corner. A quickly taken dropkick conversion attempt was unsuccessful to leave final score at 12-31. Another much needed victory eluded us with three injuries to Will Hewitt, Marc Burton and Oscar Simpson to add to our woes.
The next home game is next Saturday with our closest rivals, Sedgefield, as visitors. NB Kick-off is 2.15pm.
