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Longton, having held Moseley Oak to 5pts. all at the break, playing into the gale force wind, could not capitalise on this good first half with the wind in their favour, and eventually went down by 29pts. to 10. The second half was a catalogue of conceding numerous penalties , awarded by referee, Michael Quick, a former captain of the Longton Colts team. Thus, they were not able to gain any territorial advantage with such limited possession and field position.

The game started badly for Longton as they allowed the Oak kick-off to bounce, giving the visitors the chance to scoop up the ball and move it quickly down the left flank to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed but the visitors had secured a key early lead at 5-0pts. Longton kicked off and for the next 10mins. they exerted pressure in the away “22” but they then lost scrum-half, Jordan Hough, to a leg injury resulting in a backs re-shuffle with Grant Hallam moving to scrum-half and Ben Turner to fly-half. However, despite this setback Longton came back strongly and a powerful forward drive carried the ball over the line with Adam Ridge getting the touchdown. The difficult conversion was missed but the scores were now level at 5pts. all. Shortly afterwards a Moseley Oak player was yellow carded and Longton soon scored their second try. Again the difficult conversion was missed but the scores were now level. Shortly afterwards Longton scored their second try. Again the pack carried the ball strongly, driving their opponents back before flanker, Eroni Lequai, plunged over for the try. Again, the difficult conversion was missed but Longton led by 10-5pts. and with the advantage of the fierce wind looked to be well set to move further ahead. However, it was not to be as we entered a period of almost constant penalties against them and it allowed the visitors to launch a wave of attacks with the backs in particular now looking increasingly lively. It was almost inevitable that with so much possession and territory they would find ways of breaching the Longton defence.

With 20mins. to go Moseley Oak scored their second unconverted try to draw level at 10pts. all. Longton then lost Adam Ridge to a yellow card giving the visitors an even greater advantage. From the kick-off after the try Oak won the ball and moved it wide right to score their next try which was converted to put them ahead by 17-10pts. Two more tries in the final 15mins. gave Oak their 29-10pts. for a slightly flattering scoreline with Longton rueing the high penalty count in the second half.

M Wheat.