Caldy defeat against Macclesfield

Dec 2 2009 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

CALDY first XV suffered a disappointing loss to Cheshire rivals Macclesfield who moved two points ahead pushing Caldy down to third place.

Clashes between the two teams have always been close and this game was no exception.

With only one try each, it was the lost opportunities and penalties that really made the difference.

Man of the match Richard Vasey did his part and kicked two penalties in the first half but can be forgiven for missing the conversion of Gavin Roberts’ fantastic breakaway try.

Roberts chased and collected Vasey’s kick before sprinting 40 metres to touch it down a metre from the side line just before the half time whistle to make it 11-3.

Unfortunately, for Caldy that is where the scoring ended.

Macclesfield came out of the changing rooms fighting and seemed to take the Caldy centres by surprise with a great break from Tom Eaton who found Richard Hughes and enabled him to run under the posts for Charles Winney to convert.

Macclesfield kept the pressure on and forced two more penalties that Winney happily converted into points for them which took them five points ahead.

Caldy left it too late to counter attack, and although they spent a good 10 minutes buffeting the Macclesfield defence with drive after drive Macclesfield held them off, much to the frustration of the Caldy players, who have had a couple of penalty tries given against them in similar situations recently, but it wasn’t to happen and the game ended 11-16.

Matt Holt said: “We are obviously disappointed, we’re just going to have to make sure we beat them in the return fixture in March.

“We definitely have a few things to work on before our game away at Broadstreet this weekend, but this defeat will make the boys even more hungry for a win.”

The West Midlands team is new to the National Two North Division but have already been making their mark beating the likes of Hull Ionians, Westoe and Rugby Lions and so the game at their new purpose built ground, Ivor Preece Field, is going to be a challenging one.

Next Saturday, at 2.15pm, the second XV will be looking to continue their winning streak at home against Kendal, while the third XV are away to Warrington.Š