Aspatria knew a difficult day awaited them when they hosted West Hartlepool in Regional 2 North.
It proved so, with a 34-17 defeat at Bower Park but even In the early stages of the league campaign, Wests have emerged as one of the favourites to lift the championship.
The day did not start well for Aspatria with late withdrawal disrupting the starting line-up and make up of the bench.
It was a typical autumnal, blustery day with a strong wind blowing down the ground from the clubhouse end. The wind would dictate the flow of the game for a full 80 minutes.
The home side had first use and with the kick off caught, Ryan Scott boomed a kick down the pitch resulting in an immediate 50/22 and a line-out on the West line.
A resulting error followed by the away side and from a five metre scrum Jack Clegg found Scott on the blindside with a reverse pass and he did the rest to give Aspatria a flying start.
West fought back and controlled play, bouncing back with two tries before Scott again scored after a decisive break from Kai Gillespy on the right wing.
At this stage, the game was nip and tuck with the away side falling foul of the official resulting in their captain being sin binned.
The last play of the half saw Aspatria score an outstanding try down the right wing. Clean line-out ball was moved along the back line with pace and precision allowing Gillespy to round the fullback for a brilliant score at the corner flag.
A 17-12 lead at half time was encouraging but that would be as good as it got for the home side as they .urned to face the increasing wind,
Now it was the home side’s turn to swap roles with their visitors and suffer at the hands of the official. Lack of possession, two yellow cards and consistent offending would be the order of the day in the second half.
Facing a well drilled West side, this would result in the visitors dominating possession and field position.
As a result they would go on to score four tries, mostly via their robust forward play, as they kept the ball tight for long periods of play to frustrate the home side leaving Aspatria to hang on valiantly when they were able to.
A final flurry of attacks from Aspatria sought a try bonus points their efforts deserved but it wasn’t to be.
West were worthy winners, and it is clear they will feel they will be competing at the business end of the league table this coming season.
For the home side it was another frustrating day where a try bonus point would have been a deserved reward for their performance, but you don’t always get what you deserve.
One bright spot was again the performance of the pack who shunted the West eight backwards all day at scrum time. Unfortunately, this was with little reward.
Up next for Aspatria is Durham City away and the table demonstrates the closeness of the league with all teams expecting to beat anyone at home – and more then likely away as well. It should be an exciting journey right through until April.
Aspatria’s man of the match award went to Matty Irving whilst it has been great to see winger Kai running in tries in the last two games.
Hopefully, with a few returnees this coming weekend, the Black Reds can head to Durham with confidence and look forward to another great battle in the North East.
