STAFFORD DEVELOPMENT vs. LEEK 2ND XV. 25th October 2014.

Leek 10 – Stafford 17

Stafford development team made the uphill trip to Leek as they looked to get back to winning ways following the unfortunate defeat to Longton the previous week.

The game started with typical moorlands weather conditions as the rain came down and wind whipped across the pitch. Stafford had the best of the early play spending long periods in Leeks 22, but getting no reward for all their hard work. The breakthrough came courtesy of the boot of Tim Woolman as he slotted a deserved penalty to put the visitors on the board. There was no holding the Stafford side as the team continued to work well allowing Gaz Phillips to crash across the line for the first try of the afternoon, Tim Woolman adding the conversion. Leek grabbed a penalty just prior to half time to narrow the margin going into the break.

Ferocious Stafford tackling opened the second half as the visitors made sure that Leek couldn’t take advantage of having the wind behind them. A dominant line out saw Gaz O’Connor and Tom Williams combining to set up an attacking maul platform. Steve Rowland using all of his strength and speed to force the ball over the line for the second try of the afternoon, Tim Woolman keeping his 100% record for the afternoon with the conversion. A late yellow card to Stafford reduced them to fourteen men and Leek took advantage to snatch a converted try and the loosing bonus point to close the game.