Stanley managed to hang on to their unbeaten record, but only just!! Drighlington pushed Stanley all the way, in what was an end to end encounter with both teams playing some impressive rugby. Stanley changed tactics for this encounter, playing most of the game with a permanent stand-off, guaranteeing a minimum of two passes at each play and negating the threat of the Drighlington marker. To say that this was the first time the boys had played this way they performed admirably, never once spilling the ball or failing to move the ball through the stand-off to the ‘runner’.
Stanley put themselves under pressure early when they spilled possession in the tackle whilst running the ball out from Drighlington's kick off. But some resolute defending on their own line made sure that they didn’t hand Drighlington any early points. A good set of six by Stanley and a good kick from stand off Cameron Lees put Drighlington on the back foot, but unfortunately for Stanley the ball just ran dead. Drighlington came back at Stanley but when they spilled possession on the halfway line it gave Stanley the opportunity to try and open the scoring, which they thought they had done when prop Owen Trout went over in the corner after a good off load by Jake Smith, only for it to be adjudged that he had stepped in touch. But Stanley were not to be kept waiting for their opening try as a typically strong run from Owen saw him force his way over for the opening score, which he also converted.
Drighlington showed what a good side they are by responding immediately, going over after some strong running and suspect defence by Stanley. Rangers managed to regain their composure and a good set saw them move over halfway when Stephen Gibbs’s nice off load to Jake got them up to Drighlington's 10 metre line, which then saw Alfie Goddard at stand-off direct a brilliant kick across field for Declan Honeyman to race onto and score with ease. Again Drighlington hit back with a converted try to put them in front for the first time. Stanley again stuck to the task of gaining field possession through simple sets, with their forward line working extremely hard to gain valuable yards up field, this enabled Alfie Goddard to produce a little bit a magic and jink past three defenders in a very small area to steal over the line near the corner. Alfie converted himself to give Stanley a narrow half time lead.
With both teams looking determined from the start of the second half it was always going to be close, but it was Drighlington that crossed the whitewash first, with their hard running prop crossing for the second of his three tries, breaking three tackles on the way. But Stanley were not going to let their defensive frailties hinder their attacking flair and another good move including a couple of nice off loads finished with Man Of Steel Jake Smith going over in the corner and also converting to put Stanley back in the lead. Drighlington then looked to put Stanley under pressure and some better defensive work lead by top tackler Cameron Lees saw Stanley keep them at bay initially, but even with some good tackles coming in from Brett Miller, Owen Trout, Stephen Gibbs, Ben Green and Jake Smith the aforementioned hard running prop still managed to force his way over to give Drighlington a narrow lead.
It was then that the ever impressive Man Of The Match Owen Trout beat a number of defenders and managed to ‘hand off’ two on the line to grab a deserved second try right in the corner. This brought the scores level, but Stephen Gibbs showed nerves of steel to convert the try and secure an impressive win for Stanley. Stanley did however have to ‘see out’ one last set from Drighlington, with some good one on one tackling from Lewis Pearson and Alfie Goddard making life difficult for the opposition, and then a great last ditch tackle by Jake Smith secured the win.
Stanley showed some great attacking flair today, and moved the ball around nicely even though it was a different ‘style’ of play to what they are accustomed to, so for that WELL DONE BOYS!!
