Bees 5-29 Morpeth

The Bees succumbed to a third defeat in a row, meaning their record for the season after 16 league games, shows 8 wins and 8 defeats for Anthony Posa's men. No-one at Wagon Lane will be arguing with this result as the better team won and excellent defence from the visitors meant the home side rarely looked likely to get points on the board and despite the game still being evenly poised as the hour mark passed, the Bees again conceded late tries to see the game drift away. The score was still only 8 points to 5 in Morpeth's favour until the 63rd minute, but tries in the 63rd, 69th and second minute of stoppage time were enough to see the Northumbrian side home by a deceptively comfortable margin.

With a stiff chill breeze blowing down the Aire Valley, conditions were never likely to suit Bradford and Bingley's expansive style of play, but in a first half where the home side played down the slight slope with the wind at their backs, it seemed that the Wagon Lane men had decided to play the game without any consideration of the conditions and seemed unwilling to give the ball an old fashioned hoof downfield to clear their lines. Whenever the ball was kicked clear, it seemed to travel 50 or 60 metres with the wind pushing the ball towards Saltaire, although the home side kept trying to break free by playing the ball through the hands, only to be met by some superb tackling from the visitors, when the more direct and pragmatic application of boot to ball might have cleared their lines rather quicker and negated the visitors excellent defence.

The game looked set to be heading into half time at nil-nil as Morpeth could not break the Bees defence as they toiled into the elements and the Bees looked unlikely to break the Morpeth line despite the wind and the slope giving them an advantage. However, as the watch ticked into time added on, Morpeth took the lead through a Ben Hornby penalty. The same player increased the visitors lead with a try two minutes later meaning the sides turned round at 8-0 to the visitors, although many spectators thought the final pass to JHornby was possibly forward. The conversion was charged down as Hornby tried to counter the strong wind with a low blast into the elements.

The home side came out for the second half looking far more purposeful in all aspects of their play and despite playing into the wind and up the hill towards the cricket field, looked the better side for the opening ten minutes of the half. Tanner Lightfoot, making his seasonal debut, standing in for the injured Stefan Roguski at centre, was at his industrious best and kept prodding and probing up the left wing with Jack Malthouse looking for a half chance to show his speed on the outside of Lightfoot. With 49 minutes on the clock, the Bees endeavours were rewarded as Aaron Magee sped over wide on the left as the Bees engineered a slight gap in the Morpeth defence for Magee to charge through. The conversion attempt from Lance Taylor danced around on the wind before fading at the very last as most Bees supporters willed the ball over the crossbar, but that was the last of the Bees threats to the Morpeth line.

Jack Elliot, the Morpeth scrum half, was over the whitewash in the 63rd minute for the visitors, with Hornby adding the extras, Andy Telford followed with another score in the 69th minute, again converted by Hornby. As time ran past the 80 minute mark, the Bees were desperately trying to engineer some kind of score reduce the final deficit, unfortunately, as often happens when play becomes frantic, the ball went astray and Jonny Ward was able to gallop home for the final try, improved again by Hornby.
By
Nick Patterson