Away day blues for Didsbury

Didsbury, third in North Lancs 1, lost out to second placed Eccles 19-7 last Saturday.

Despite being able to name an unchanged team from the side that was victorious against Trafford MV the week before, Didsbury never really got started in this vital league encounter. The first twenty minutes saw both teams cancel each other out with good displays of defence and it took the sin binning of Cooper, which appeared a harsh refereeing decision, to break the deadlock. With Cooper in the sin bin Eccles were able to gain territorial advantage and a good handling move created the overlap for the winger to score. The conversion was well converted making the score 7-0.
Despite Didsbury spending periods of play deep in Eccles territory they were frustratingly unable to capitalise, due to handling errors or penalties being conceded. The two defences again held strong, with no more points being scored upto the halftime break.

The second half saw much of the same midfield stalemate as the first. But Eccles, demonstrating why they have had such a good start to the season, were able to score two further tries to lead 19-0. It took a moment of brilliance from Pete Davies to get Didsbury on the scoreboard. Davies intercepted a stray Eccles pass and raced 80 metres to score under the posts, adding the conversion himself. Eccles were able to prevent any further scores, despite a late display of the attacking rugby expected from the Didsbury side.

One positive from the game was the first appearance of the season for captain Mike Hyde, who came of the bench with ten minutes to play.

Didsbury will expect a better performance when they welcome Garstang to Ford Lane next Saturday, 2:30pm kick off.

Didsbury’s second team were able to notch up another win, beating Trafford MV 20-10. But Didsbury’s third and fourth teams both lost out to Heaton Moor sides. The third team lost 10-16 to Moor’s third team, while in a quirk of the league system Toc’s fourth team lost 47-0 against Moor’s second team.