Aspatria collected all five points in Durham/Northumberland One with a 41-19 win at Novocastrians.
The home side threw plenty of challenges at Aspatria during the 80 minutes but the Black Reds always seemed in control of the game and ran out comfortable winners.
It is too early to state that this win puts Aspatria’s season back on track but it certainly lifted the mood in the camp ahead of the next game, when Medicals visit Bower Park on Saturday.
Aspatria got off to a great start with a try in the third minute. Pacey winger, Grant Bethwaite raced down the left flank and realising that the cover defence was converging on him angled a grubber kick infield towards the try line where fullback Andrew Miller was on hand to collect the ball and dot down.
Jack Clegg converted and would retain a 100% record throughout the game including two touchline conversions. Clegg increased the lead to 0:13 with two penalties and with only 14 minutes on the clock it looked bleak for Novos, who by this time, also had a man in the bin.
The bulk of the play was in the Novo’s half with the home side only occasionally breaking out to pose a threat but on 25 minutes they made one of these breaks pay. They demonstrated excellent control of the ball to stretch the Aspatria defence and create an overlap to register an unconverted score at the right corner flag.
On the half hour Aspatria took a scrum against the head around 25 yards out, and scrum half Alex Barton seized on the opportunity to make ground before handing over to Clegg who put Bethwaite in at the left corner.
Near enough from the restart Novo’s demonstrated that they were not yet out of this contest. They mounted a near identical attack to that which earlier paid dividends and were rewarded with a penalty try when Aspatria’s defence illegally prevented a score.
It was 12-20 but the comeback did not happen thanks to a spectacular score from Jamie Lightfoot. The back rower got hands on the ball around half way and set off on a crossfield run. The move stunned Novo’s who initially failed to react. The chase was on but Lightfoot had the gas to gain the line and send Aspatria into the second half with a 15 point advantage.
The opening period of the second half was by far Novo’s best spell of the game. They now had the advantage of a downfield breeze and they used this to good effect to pen Aspatria against the line. This period of ascendancy lasted ten or so minutes but crucially Aspatria held out.
Aspatria eventually broke out and took play back into home territory. On 55 minutes Joe Beaty got the 4th try to secure a bonus point. Beaty came onto the ball in the 22 and outnumbered, the home defence could not cut out all the options at his disposal. With the line at his mercy a simple shimmy did the trick and Beaty went between two defenders.
Aspatria could not be faulted for taking their foot off the gas and this allowed Novo’s to increase their share of ball possession but Aspatria’s defence was solid enough to keep attacks at arms-length until the final few minutes.
In those final minutes there was a flurry of activity. First Novo’s registered a 3rd try to give them some hope of chasing down a bonus point. The score itself resulted from a superbly executed crossfield kick that found a man unmarked on the left wing with just 50 yards of grass in front of him.
Novo’s upped their work rate in search of a valuable bonus point. It did not come and it was Aspatria who would finish with a flourish.
Lee Askew whose bullocking runs had Novo’s back peddling throughout the game came onto the ball in the home 22 and judged his angled run to perfection to cut through the defence and score as Aspatria ended a five-game losing run.
