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Bad day at the office

5/11/2008

Ashton RUFC 5 Garstang 6: A SCRAPPY performance from Ashton saw them beaten by a single point at Gambrel Bank on Saturday.

Having opened the game playing into the blustery wind, Ashton found it difficult to make progress, as well as any real use of the possession that they managed to gain.

Their passing and handling let them down with those errors further compounded by a series of penalties, two of which put Garstang 6-0 ahead.

The home side also had to cope with bad luck as the first half drew to a close with the departure of the injured Gareth Blomeley.

However, they seemed to have got their act together early in the second half when a rolling maul towards the Garstang line ended with Neil Oldham taking the ball a yard out and driving over.

He celebrated with a shout of triumph, whereby one of the visiting players threw a punch at him and the referee deemed Oldham’s actions as intimidating the opposition, sinbinning him for 10 minutes and ignoring the misdemeanours of the Garstang player.

Despite this bizarre incident, there was still plenty of time after Oldham’s return to action for the home side to register another score.

Garstang continued to compete well in the pack, scrapping for every inch of territory, but any attacks they made foundered on a solid defence and Ashton still had enough possession to conjure up the score that would have put them in front.

It was not to be though as the ball went to ground on far too many occasions, the decision-making was not the best and the game finished with Tom Hibbert taking an unsuccessful long-range kick at goal when two earlier opportunities from closer in had been spurned.

Garstang duly fielded the ball behind the line, kicked it into touch and celebrated their victory.