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Martin's Midweek Muse

Martin's Midweek Muse

Nick Patterson7 Dec 2016 - 14:37
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It's, Wednesday, or Hump Day, so it must be time for the thoughts of Mr Martin Whitcombe

One of my first thoughts on reflecting on last week's game at home to Penrith was what a good side they were and what a pleasure it must be for the followers of that club to watch a team week in and week out who are able to keep the ball alive and handle superbly right across the side. They were, by a distance, the best side we have faced this season.

Now, just to flip that statement around, if I was that impressed by Penrith, you can imagine how thoroughly chuffed I was with how our boys played. The tackling was first class, our support play in defence and the way we countered at rucks and mauls were all top notch.

Before Saturday, I believe Penrith had scored a try in every game this season, so to hold them to a "nil" in the tries scored column was pretty special. Also the Penrith boys were also the top of the class in terms of points allowed - so again, to run in three scores shows what a good all round performance we put together on Saturday afternoon.I believe Penrith will be right in the mix for promotion come April and they thoroughly deserve to be there from how we saw them play.

So we get back on the horse again this week and prepare for the long haul up to Alnwick.

This will be another very tough game for us, not only does the lengthy trip up there present a few problems, but the opposition that will be lining up to face us come kick off will be another very good side. Alnwick have won 7 of 7 on their own patch so far this season, so that gives you an idea of the task we are facing. We have a breakfast laid on down at the club at 8 am, so any spectators wanting to get fed before the long haul north are welcome to join us.

I know Scoop has made use of the phrase "revolving door" for a few weeks now in his match reports and programme notes to describe the number of changes we have been forced to make week on week over the first half of the season and it is a fair point. Yet again there will be changes made to the squad this Saturday, due to a couple of injuries we picked up last week, and also on a more positive note, because we have a couple more players back who are available for us to use.

I really hope we will see a more settled side trotting out in the coming weeks and I am also very pleased to see that one or two of the older players we have used sparingly thus far in the first half of the season are available to add to the mix - Richard Hughes, Richard Tafa and Phil Greaves to name three who fall into that category.

I said a couple of weeks ago that our season would be defined by this little block of fixtures we are in at the moment. Penrith was the first, Alnwick this weekend, then Morpeth before we break for Christmas. We then start the New Year with two further tough fixtures, Pocklington and West Hartlepool. We currently have 44 points from the 13 games we have played - but where we are after game 17, I still believe, will be crucial to where we ultimately end the season. There are 20 league points there to be won in the next four fixtures but I wont tempt fate by setting any targets on what we should be looking to achieve, but rest assured the boys will be scrapping out there for every one of them.

If you are travelling up to Alnwick, please come over and have a chat after the game, but failing that, I hope we shall see you all at the Morpeth game for the Club's Christmas Party.

Cheers!

Martin

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