All-Round Display in Derbyshire

Goole travelled to Derbyshire side Dronfield and produced an outstanding team performance to come away with a try bonus point win against quality opposition as they not only restricted the free scoring Dronfield to just three points, but also took away their unbeaten home record for this season.
Just one late change for the Goole side with the influential Tink Taylor picking up an injury during training and being replaced at number eight by the impressive Ollie Raynor who had an outstanding game. Playing with the breeze and slight slope in their favour the home side kicked off and briefly spent time in the Goole 22 until being pushed back to their own half where they spent the majority of the next 30 minutes as Goole dominated territory and possession whilst frustratingly not being able to score the points that their domination deserved. As in recent weeks, there were plenty of scoring opportunities created but it was a frustrating time for the significant number of travelling Goole supporters with numerous line breaks not producing any points. One of the most frustrating being when Danny Holt was clear, and in a repeat of the previous week’s incident, his try scoring pass to his support being intercepted by a recovering home team defender. Once again, Goole opted to kick for attacking lineouts rather than kick at goal, but with hooker Coates hitting double top for the majority of his throws this week, they retained possession but to no avail being held up over the Dronfield try line in one foray.
Goole’s kick returns were once again excellent preventing the home team from relieving the pressure for any length of time as play returned into the Dronfield half almost immediately, with the Goole front row all carrying well into contact. To their credit, Dronfield defended well, and when they were awarded a penalty, they kicked long for an attacking lineout as the game went into the last ten minutes of the half. The brief attacking threat was comfortably dealt with by Goole who finally got their noses in front after a quick tap penalty in midfield was taken on by Sam Smith who passed to the supporting Danny Holt to go over for the try. The excellent conversion by Rhys Moore giving Goole a deserved lead 0 – 7. As the half was coming to an end Dronfield were awarded a penalty that they kicked to bring the half time score to 3 – 7 that was not a true reflection on the dominance that Goole had throughout most of the half.
Prop Louis Sugden came on for Jason Blanchard for the second period and it did not take Goole long to continue where they left off by applying immense pressure on the Dronfield ball receivers forcing a variety of turnovers with the Goole ball carriers taking it in turns to gain ground towards the home team try line. The early pressure resulting in a converted try for Raymond Coates stretching Goole’s lead to 3 – 14 after just three minutes of the second half. To Dronfield’s credit they came back strongly with recognition of the importance of the next team to score but despite all their efforts they found no way through the organised and committed Goole defence. They tried everything, attacking lineouts and scrums, open play, ball carrying forwards and aggression all with little success as they won a metre with one carry and then lost two metres on the next. This enabled Goole to successfully defend their line and push play back outside of the Goole 22. Whether it was a Jack Smith steal of the ball in contact, or a quick-silver tackle and recovery from Connor Walker, Ashton Neal, Ollie Raynor or James Chantry, the outcome was just the same, with Goole winning countless turnovers to relieve the pressure.
Whilst Dronfield had a couple of close calls, they could not contend with the pressure put on their ball-receivers as Goole weathered the storm despite losing Sugden to a high tackle yellow card. Back came Blanchard to form the scrums, with winger Ollie Pearson being the player brought off to accommodate the changes. With Will Devenish now on and Moore at off- half, it did not take Goole long to get the next score with Moore providing Sam Smith with a peach of a flat pass to crash through the would-be defender and over the line to score an unconverted try for 3 – 19. By this time Goole were back to full strength with Josh Malcolmson moving out to the wing and Ollie Johnson coming on for Ashton Neal in the back row. With their tails up, Goole were not prepared to let Dronfield get back into the game and a fourth try looked certain when, after a Will Devenish pick up from a scrum, Danny Holt broke though the Dronfield defence to go over the try line. Unfortunately, he forgot to put the ball down, and reportedly, whilst looking round for a photographer’s lens to snap the score, a fast-recovering defender managed to knock the ball out of his hands and the “try” was lost. Not to be too disappointed back came Goole to get the well deserved fourth bonus point try when Jack Smith crashed over and got his reward for an excellent performance.
In summary, the travelling support agreed that this was one of Goole’s best all-round team performances, with every player in the squad making a significant contribution against quality opposition. Goole once again failed to capitalise on the many scoring opportunities they are creating, but make no mistake, it was the defensive performance that won this game. Very difficult to single out one player for the Man of the Match with Connor Walker and James Chantry to the fore but the award went to Jack Smith for his all-round display.