Market Drayton secure a vital victory in ‘must win’ game
A power-paced second half display saw Market Drayton claim a vital victory in Counties Two Midlands West North.
Head coach George Armstrong had labelled the home clash with Luctonians III as ‘must win’ and his troops delivered as they recovered from 21-7 down at half-time to triumph 26-21.
“On the back of three defeats and the fact that they were below us in the table, I felt it was a must win game,” said Armstrong. “We have got to beat the sides that are in and around us. This season is all about consolidation. We expected it to be tough but it’s where we want to play our rugby.
“It’s a better style and standard of rugby but we all know we deserve to be in this league we want to stay in it.
“It’s going to be hard to beat the sides near the top because they have big budgets. And the players who play for Newport, Bridgnorth and Luctonians all train with their first teams and that shows when you play them. So it’s important get results against the sides around you in the table.
“We tried our best to mess it up on Saturday. We gave them two tries in the first half and suddenly we were 21-7 down.
“At half-time we talked about keeping possession better and to keep battering away at them.
“I thought that as the game wore on we could wear them down ad that’s what happened.
“We managed to score three good tries after the break and had another one disallowed.
“In the last 20 minutes we really took the game to them. So from being 21-7 down and looking as is we were going to lose we ended up winning and picking up a bonus point.” Chad Fieldhouse, Alex Gammon and Jim Barrett all crossed before Gammon had the final say, capping an impressive display with another try and conversion to seal a 26-21 success.
Next up for Drayton is a clash with Oswestry, the side they gained promotion alongside last season.
Oswestry were beaten 30-16 by league leaders Bridgnorth II on Saturday.
Lewys Cooke’s early try and a penalty from Tom Williams twice had Oswestry ahead, but by the time Ed Roberts got their second try it was no more than consolation.
Elsewhere, Newport II were beaten 39-32 by Veseyans, despite a hat-trick of tries for James Bent and one each for James Scott, Thomas Higgins and Luke Kendall.
