A blistering start by Durham City set the tone for the whole of the game at Bower Park and went on to win 46-17.
Towards half-time Aspatria had recovered sufficiently to suggest the result was far from certain, but in the second half, City took near complete control of proceedings to leave the home side wondering just what had happened.
No one from Aspatria will be happy with the first play of the game. Aspatria received the kick off and made an almighty mess of it, handing back possession to City without much of a fight.
From this City launched a pacey backs move that should have registered the first try, but a handling mistake saved Aspatria’s blushes.
It was all City in these opening minutes and several of the back division had genuine pace.
This was used to its fullest extent to open the scoring on five minutes with a second try followed shortly after to cement a 12-0 lead.
Aspatria accepted the set-back and, with 15 minutes played, began to demonstrate that they too had something to offer in attack.
A persistent effort by the home pack, going through several well-controlled phases, paid dividends on 16 minutes when captain Chris Graham broke past the final defender to dot down. Jack Clegg added the extras.
Play evened out for a period, and home optimism levels rose further on 25 minutes when Clegg knocked over a penalty to close the gap to two points.
The feel-good factor evaporated a couple of minutes later with what was the try of the game.
Aspatria ended a promising attack with a speculative kick towards the City 22. The ball was collected by City stand-off Jimmy Lythgoe, who was excellent throughout the game. Lythgoe’s mazy run left the Aspatria defence in ruins before he was stopped in the home 22.
The ball was recycled, and Lythgoe again came back into possession and swept through for the try.
The visitor’s lead of 19-10 only stood for a handful of minutes before Aspatria’s best play of the day delivered a try for second row Jude Wilkinson.
The move was started down the flank by left winger Dan Weir, who rounded the defence and provided a superb off-load to number eight Steve Nelson.
He made his way into the 22 before Wilkinson took over and posted the try. Clegg’s conversion reduced the deficit to two points again.
With the first half closing, City successfully rolled the dice and came up with a bonus point try.
It came as a result of a ball hacked through the home defence which could have gone anywhere.
However, the bounce favoured the brave and City closed the half with a 24-17.
At the interval, Aspatria would still consider themselves very much in the game.
Unfortunately, the second half was dominated by City. Aspatria fought hard enough to provide a different outcome, but nothing would go right for them.
The home side had a fair share of ball possession, and both line-out and set scrum held up reasonably well, only for errors at crucial times to turn a dream into a nightmare.
It also has to be recorded that in this second period, City played some flawless rugby.
The defence was tight, and they were ruthless when try-scoring opportunities arose. Aspatria’s decline started with six minutes played, when a City penalty extended the lead.
Most of the play now transferred into the Aspatria half.
Around 55 minutes, City had a couple of half-chances to score. They were held up over the line following a short period of intense play on the home try line.
Immediately after this, an Aspatria breakout was intercepted, and again the move only faltered inches from the line.
How Aspatria held out during this onslaught is not entirely clear, but they remained only 10 points adrift and holding the possibility of getting something from the game.
This hope was about to be snatched away.
After a brief interval of seeing off a couple of home attacks, City were again on the march, finishing strongly with the delivery of three tries. All the scores involved the use of precise interchanges at a pace that the home defence could not deal with.
It was a well-deserved win for Durham City to end a run of four straight defeats and one that should kickstart their rise up the league.
The game went wrong for Aspatria; it just seemed like one of those days when nothing worked and Lady Luck was completely absent. Plenty to work on, but with some of the walking wounded coming back into the squad, there should be no panic at Bower Park.
