The Lions Come up Just Short on a Day of Difficult Conditions.

The game was played with a bitterly , strong wind sweeping across the Ashford No 2 Pitch !
The Lions started with the wind in their favour and came very close to scoring on many occasions, but a dropped pass and the very strong defence by Ashford kept their line intact .

The packs were quite evenly matched and the game was played mainly in the Ashford territory for the first half . Thatcher and Topping came close with good runs but the final tackle prevented the scores . Dave Rose scrambled over the line for a touchdown, but the Referee ruled against it .

Thus the second half was going to be difficult for the Lions but eventually pressure by the Ashford pack in the ruck, when the Lions were down to 14 men, produced a try, which was converted .
The game moved up and down the pitch and again, poor handling of the final pass in the backs resulted in a perfect scoring chance being wasted .

The game had to be transferred to the No 1 Pitch, as an Ashford player was injured and could not , for safety, be moved .
Soon after the resumption, a kick forward was well-chased by an Ashford centre and he won the race for the touch-down and scored .
The Lions responded and from a quickly-taken penalty, Tom McLachlan went over for a good try, but the conversion was too difficult in that wind .

So ended a very cold , difficult match day .

The 2nds are 'nearly there' . There have been 3 narrow defeats in succession, all of which could have been won with more steadiness being shown in the passing and receipt of the ball and also EVERYBODY moving quicker to be in the correct place for the situation on the field .

Team: 15. Matt Halpin 14. Ed Topping 13. Tom McLachlan 12. Carl Thatcher 11. Sammy Johnson 10. Ben Ruffley 9. Mike Rowarth
1. Ross Wakefield 2. Andrew Sapsford 3. Rory Marshman 4. Tom Dennis 5. Marcus Nelson 6. Billy Hollingworth 7. Joe Michael 8. Dave Rose Jnr

16. Benny Clay.

Report by David Storrie.