Spirited Gannets defeated by strong Ashford team

Following a week where thoughts had drifted towards cancelling a league fixture for the first team in a couple of seasons, the Gannets were still able to look around at the start of this match and see that we had assembled a strong starting XV thanks to the gratefully received appearances of Nick Ormes and Dan Wicks as guests from the Swans, and the (ultimately fleeting) return from injury for Jake Welsh.

Gravesend received the kick off from Ashford and set up about winning a series of penalties for offside and slowing play, making steady progress down the field. This marked a welcome change from recent weeks where it has at times seemed like it was the team in Black & White who were the party conceding easy ground by giving away penalties. The early exchanges were not all in the favour of the visitors however with it apparent even at an early stage that if Ashford could hold onto the ball for a few phases they would cause their opposing backline problems in the wide open spaces of the expansive home pitch.

Partway through the first half the Ashford backs demonstrated their ability to beat the man on the outside and touched down for the games first score, which was converted.

After again showing their strength through the forwards and the running of Steve Wootten and Nick Ormes and making ground from the penalties conceded by the home side the Gannets found themselves close to Ashford line. After a number of scrums and a few phases of pick and go around the fringes, Matthew Abbott continued his remarkable (at least to us that have played with him for the last few years) try scoring run by touching down beneath the posts for the second match in succession. An easy conversion should have followed for Ben Baker, returning to the starting line up for the first time in over a year, but he messed it up leaving the Gannets trailing by 2 points with a few minutes to go until half time.

A break by another of Ashford's pacy backline looked likely to lead to another try for the home team until everyone's favourite turbo charged front row came steaming in to arrest the breakout. Unfortunately it did look to the referee that Sarge was trying to decapitate the opposing player and on that basis he decided that the time had come for the games first yellow card.

From the resulting penalty, Ashford took the atypical approach for the Dragon Fire 4 West league and trusted their backs with a series of well weighted passes creating space on the outside for their winger to run under the posts for his sides second try. At half time therefore Gannets trailed their opponents 14-5.

At half time Sam Holden volunteered himself for a rest to allow Jake Welsh to take the field and the Gannets begun the second half with a focus on building upon the strong forward phases that had served them well in the run up to their try.

Shortly after the second half began Sean Drabwell injured his knee leaving Sam Holden to abandon his rest and the referee to invite Jon Sargent to return to the field returning the Gannets to 15 players but with no further replacements. Two minutes later Jake Welsh found out that his knee wasn't quite as ready to return to rugby as expected and also had to leave the field. Sportingly at this stage Ashford provide their visitors with another player to leave the match at 15 versus 15.

Ashford were able to conjure another try at this stage before Gravesend lost Ralph Walpole to an injured rib and Ashford lent the Gannets their captain for the remainder of the match. The two fresh forwards helped the Gannets to once again return to their game plan of making hard yards through the forwards, with the occasional carry from fly half (Ian Shuttlewood!), centre or wing when the backs decided they wanted to get involved too.

It was again following a good period of pressure built up by Gravesend that the away side were able to call for a scrum which gave Jamie Feighery the chance to cross the line for a try and show us all that Mike Percival might have a fight on for his number 8 shirt once his ribs are healed!

Following this Ashford were able to score their fourth try with the Gravesend winger unable to hold up the player following a strong run from the opposing centre leaving the final score in the game 28-10.

Gravesend can be proud of the performance put in against a strong Ashford side following a challenging week for player availability. It was pleasing to see the return of Pete Stone on the wing following a busy few weeks of unaccommodating shifts at work and once again the Gravesend scrum showed in strength in winning a couple of balls against the head. Hopefully the team can carry their strengths into the fixture next week against Lordswood, when you should be pleased to know the regular team journalist will hopefully return.

Until then...