Caldy RFC left counting cost of 23-19 defeat at Preston

Feb 4 2009 by Neil Macdonald, Birkenhead News

ANOTHER serious injury means Caldy will be counting the cost of a close 23-19 defeat at Preston in more than points lost last Saturday.

The unlucky player this time was stand-off Ben Macpherson, who received the ball from the scrum before collapsing after wrenching his ankle in the turf.

But it says a lot of the Wirral team that despite Macpherson’s freak injury, they continued to hammer away at the Preston line.

Unfortunately, they were denied time and again by some stout defence and their own errors in attack and defence.

On a heavy pitch, Preston stand off Marcus Jackson and Caldy points machine Gavin Roberts traded penalties, before Preston moved the ball wide for giant winger Russell Flynn to force his way over in the corner. Jackson converted to make it 10-3.

Caldy hit back with a Roberts penalty before Liam Devaney – with a brilliant pick-up off his toes – and Mark Turner linked up to put the supporting Dave Mercer over for the try.

Roberts kicked the conversion before another penalty made it 16-10 to Caldy. But two Jackson penalties levelled the game up at half-time.

Preston started the second half with 15 minutes of sustained pressure in Caldy’s half, leading to hooker Ritchie Sands eventually crossing the line, Jackson again converting.

This score finally encouraged Caldy to show something like their true form and they launched attack-after-attack at the home team, forcing the home team to kill the ball again and again – unpunished by the referee beyond a penalty, converted by Roberts.

With one last effort, Andrew Soutar raced for the corner, only to be forced into touch and the game was lost.