Didsbury Toc H 55 – Thornton Cleveleys 5

Thornton were riding high after a narrow victory the previous week against 2nd in the table, their position just below Didsbury in the league would have given them confidence and a close game was expected. Didsbury had other ideas!

Didsbury kicked off on a dark winter’s day but within minutes, strong running from the forwards created pressure on the Thornton line. After a few pick and go’s Didsbury were inches from scoring when winger Enita Okidiko came in looking for the ball and carried out a move more accustomed to his home country’s NFL game and dived over the top to score. Olly Thomas added the conversion.
Shortly after the restart there was a penalty kick to the corner in which a rehearsed forwards move saw Captain Mike Hyde claim the score. Conversion missed. This set the pace of the game and Didsbury had a solid mobile forward platform to release the slick handling and hard running backs.

A quick ball off the top of a lineout was shipped to winger Dave Hoare who raced around his opposite number to score in the corner. Conversion missed.

Unfortunately for Didsbury complacency set in briefly and Thornton seized the opportunity to score their only try of the match. Didsbury raised their game again and discovered a weakness in the outside centre channel in which Peter Davies had a field day, his pace and elusiveness could not be contained and several of the following tries could be attributed to his breaks.

Didsbury dominance in the set piece possession allowed for a great platform to attack, half backs Jamie Peacock and Gareth Oakley marshalled the play with good support from the backrow around the field.
Scores to follow included Okidiko’s 2nd (more of a standard wingers run in rather than a running back hop over!), two for Davies, Tom Makin and Hoare completed his hattrick with the final move of the game when he stole the ball from his oppositions hands to race in and score under the posts, adding his drop goal conversion to finish the game 55-5.
Didsbury will be happy with this 9 try performance and it demonstrates what can be achieved when the team click as a cohesive unit. Thornton must be commended for their efforts throughout the game, never giving up until the final whistle when they donned festive jumpers and stayed around for a pub crawl with some of the Didsbury players and Dale in particular who played well on his debut.

The usual 2 week Christmas break sets in and the players are looking to rerun to form when they return to action on 4th January at Trafford MV.