BLACKPOOL ROCK TOWN

Blackpool Panthers 24 - Workington Town 20

Two things rarely occur in Blackpool, it neither snows or Blackpool Panthers win a game.

Both of these rare phenomenon occurred on Sunday but as the snow was forecast it was the latter that caused some surprise to the uninitiated. Blackpool Panthers could have won two of their opening three league games and pundits on the Fylde Coast had gingerly tipped a win against a Town side that had also not beaten professional opposition this season.

One of Blackpool's problems has been that in every game they have conceded early tries and then have had to chase the game. No such problem this time after 14 minutes they led by 16-0 and former Workington trialist Matt Ashe had scored a sensational hat trick and converted two of his own tries. It was Ashe's kicking game that caused Town havoc, his third try fully illustrated this. On the final tackle he was quickest to react to his own deft little grubber kick and gathered the kick and squirmed free of two would be tacklers to score near the left hand post. Both his other tries came down the left side as Blackpool with the wind and elements at their backs created havoc.
Town game back in the game after 20 minutes when Mark Routledge skipped over in the corner after a period of sustained pressure to reduce the arrears to 16-4.

It was not long however before Man of the Match Ashe was at it again, another clever grubber kick on the final tackle saw Andy Wallace collect and score under the posts for Ashe to convert. This left the Panthers in uncharted waters with a 22-4 interval lead.

Having lost the previous 46 games in a run stretching back to July 2006 the Panther's would have to dig deep facing a team with their coaches half time blasting wringing in their ears and facing a gale and occasional blizzard.

After 46 minutes fine work down the left hand side saw Carl Forber dash over and convert his own try to reduce the arrears to 22-10.

Panthers were forced to defend for long periods and did so bravely before a rare forey into the Workington half saw full back John Leather land a penalty to increase the lead to 24-10.

A further spell of Town pressure saw winger Martyn Wilson score a unconverted try far out on the left, before scrum half Jay Duffy set up a tense final two minutes with a try converted by Forber to reduce the arrears to 24-20.

There were scenes of uncontrolled elation at the final whistle and Blackpool left the field to loud applause from the faithful, and even the Workington supporters who joined in the applause were gracious enough to concede that the best team had won.

Teams

Blackpool, Leather, Gillam, Munroe, Jones (C), Kilgannon, Ashe, O'Brien, Warriner, Clough, Fairhurst, Boland, Ratcliffe, Wallace,
Subs, Kaye, Barton, Jones (G), Gambles

Workington, McCully, Dawes, Routledge, Mossop, Wilson, Forber, Duffy, Burgess, Lunt (S), Beamont, Marsh, Miller ,Lunt (R)
Subs, Kmet, Tunstall, Campbell. Lavulava.

Ref. J. Child

Attendance 280

Man of the Match. M. Ashe (Blackpool)
Star Town Player. Mathew Tunstall

Penaltys 9-9