Rough - but ready.
Hornets(32) see off Workington(08)
Normal service is resumed. That
was the phrase bandied around in the bar before this game - and after 8 minutes
it all looked too, too familiar. Hornets struggling to establish a rhythm
and Workington 6-0 up courtesy of an Okesene last tackle kick and unopposed
dive in by Hetherington. Marvellous.
But Hornets finally clicked. On 12 minutes Ian Watson threaded a neat pass
through to Mick Nanyn who steamed in from 10 metres. Nanyn converted. With
ToWn sprawling all over the tackles and Mr Thaler quite happy for them to
do so, any progress was slow, but on 20 minutes Watson's grubber saw ToWn
full back squashed behind his own line and from the drop-out posession some
tidy close-range passing found Paul Owen with enogh space to skate through
and score. Nanyn added the extras, followed four minutes later by a penalty
for Workington 'doing something stupid' - a careless high tackle.
Workington continued to send in the forwards, who made negligible progress
against the resoluely steely new Hornets pack, but Mr Thaler helped them close
their account for the afternoon with a spurious offside decision and penalty
after half an hour.
With half time beckoning, Hornets were camped on the ToWn line. With tackles
running out, Pachniuk took the ball from actring half, waited for the ToWn
defenders to come screaming off their line, found Dave Larder arriving at
speed and he cruised through a huge hole to score. Nanyn did the necessary
and Hornets were all but out, of sight at 20-8.
The highlight of the first half was Damian Ball's frenetic tackling. Hitting
everything that moved, he he left a wake of crumpled, wheezing and sickly
looking ToWn ball-carriers.
Town started the second half with a greater sense of purpose. Steered around
by midget-gem Owen Williamson, they threatened right up to the point where
Casey Mayberry took a Waren Ayres pass 25 metres out, hit the hyperspace button
and magically reappeared putting the ball down behind a bemused ToWn defence.
Awesome stuff as he blasted through flailing tacklers - Hornets supporters
celebrating the try almost as soon as he took the pass. Dead-eye nanyn slotted
the goal.
And so Hornets succumbed to Workington's slowly-slowly approach. Struggling
to get up from under a series of sprawling tacklers, the next 20 minutes passed
all but uneventfully. Fans were woken from their slimbers by the sound of
people clapping Richard Pachniuk's one yard sucker try, converted by... yes,
yes... you get the picture.
And so the game wound its way to an end. Tommy Cooper caught in two minds
and ending up in touch instead of scoring, the only remaining point of interest.
Our man of the match: Damian Ball - his defence was simply awesome
and we looked decidedly less stern when he wasn't on the field.
Hally was taciturn in the aftermath: "We showed a lot of rough edges, but
got the result," he said. "Workington slowed it down... they came to slow
us down and did a good job. We managed to nil them in the second half, which
was pleasing."
Ultimately, it went pretty much to expectations. A rough and ragged Hornets
had way too much in the tank for a town side that look like they'll struggle
against Wath Brow on Friday. Hally's maintained that he'd rather be
good at the end of the season than now - and there is PLENTY of room for improvement.
But there are certainly signs that, when it all finally does click, it could
be yet another interesting season.
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