Halifax Away

Dear sirs and madam, please find following match reports for Northallerton 1st and 2nd teams for Saturday 17th October.

Northallerton 1st team travelled to Halifax Vandals in search of their first win of the season after five straight defeats. Hope and moral was high after some good performances last week, and finally a start for flying winger Gary Studley Essex. Things looked even more promising when Duffus ploughed through three opposition tacklers to score out wide. Dan Luck narrowly missing the conversion. There then followed twenty minutes of even possession rugby with neither side gaining an advantage. The home side unpredictably caught Northallerton napping with a converted try and a penalty either side of half time. This suddenly left Northallerton with a colossal mountain to climb with score at 20-5 to Halifax. There was a slight glimmer of hope when chunky hooker Rhodes scored his third try of the season. This time Luck proficiently kicked the conversion. Soon after, Luck had a chance with a long distance penalty which unfortunately drifted just wide. With ten minutes to go Northallerton kept up constant pressure on the home side defence which resulted in Stu Baker jnr scoring under the posts and Luck again converting. With, what most people thought at least five minutes left and Northallerton in the ascendancy, a shock recovery looked on the cards. The referee then bizarrely blew up for full time sentencing Northallerton to another defeat, - 20-19. With a little more luck - not Dan Luck (there’s enough of him as it is!), and more conviction hopefully there must/will be a change of fortune soon.