Silsden Park
Rangers ARLFC
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The improved form from the previous match since the arrival of 4 under 18
players from the Cougar Cubs continued as Silsden fought all the way against
unbeaten Brighouse from the first Division in this Pennine league Presidents Cup
game. Silsden took the lead after 17
minutes after fine defense kept the visitors at bay when Matt Bowness picked up
a fumble from the Brighouse full back from a kick through from John Williams.
John Williams converted to give a six point lead.
Then came a turning point in the match.
After 32 minutes, Brighouse were awarded a penalty in front of the
Silsden posts. A quick play the ball
was stopped illegally by John Williams who was standing off-side and the referee
sent him to the sin bin for a deliberate professional foul.
From the resulting set of six, despite a flagrant foul at the play the
ball, Brighouse forced their way over to level the scores.
The numerical advantage told and Brighouse took the lead with a well
worked converted try after 38 minutes but the Silsden defence, led by top
tackler Neil Jordan, held until half time to give a score of 6-12. The second half was an evenly contested affair. Brighouse could have taken
the lead after a break down the middle of the field, but superb chasing back
from David Illiffe and Lee Shaw kept the visitors from scoring; a penalty from
in front of the stick for holding down was all that Brighouse achieved.
Some very poor refereeing saw tempers flare as high tackles went
un-penalised, resulting in both props being sin binned, in Mark Adam’s case,
purely for defending himself. After
66 minutes, a break down the right hand side saw the Brighouse winger score out
wide an unconverted try. Silsden
struck back immediately after good work from Neil Jordan and Alan Preston, a
kick through was not cleared by the Brighouse defence as they left the ball to
go over the dead ball line. Tony Fella acrobatically grabbed the ball and
somehow grounded the ball before the dead ball line right behind the posts. John
William closed the deficit to just six points. Silsden then pressurised the
Brighouse line and both Anthony Smith and Craig Spencer went close, and
unluckiest of all was Silsden’s man of the match Matt Bowness who seemed to
have grounded the ball on the line diving through from acting half a mound of
Brighouse defenders; the referee adjudged that he was short of the line.
The game was sealed on 85 minutes when an overload on the right hand side
saw the Silsden cover defense stretched and Brighouse scored in the corner to
give a final score of 12-22. This was a fine performance from the young Silsden side who were without 8
senior 1st team players and had it not been for the influx of the
four young Cougar Cubs, Silsden would not have been able to fulfil either of
their last 2 fixtures. Silsden are
again at home this week playing old rivals Stainland Stags – kick off is at
2.00pm.
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