playoff match home to workington : Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:44 pm
panthers 36-26 workingtonPanthers booked their place in the next playoff round with a hard fought win over a dogged town outfit. The first half panthers trailed 14-0, down to a combination of dire refereeing and some sloppy play in attack.
Panthers nearly scored off the first set of 6, after hobson broke through, choosing imo the wrong option passing inside, however the supporting forber was taken before he caught the ball, yet a knock on was given, a few more bombed opportunities, many construed by halliwell who imo was worst player on pitch by a long way, offloads fired directly behind him, not looking to see if there were support runners just flinging it away, and going for glory rather than giving the easy pass for a try in the corner, along with poor discipline, sums up his performance. panthers were down to 12 men twice in the first half, the first came after a knock on was given after a blatant trip on llewellyn came against panthers, hobson appealing for a knock on to the touch judge, was then sinbinned for appealing. keaveney was also binned later in the half for holding down, however it was the first sinbin spell that cost panthers as 10 points were shipped in this time, while another 4 were scored later in the half, workington were also down to 12 late in the first half after the centre no.29 took it upon himself to start swinging at munro.
2nd half and a response was needed, we got it within 10 minutes as with some slick handling clough was sent in under the posts, ainscough then scored twice followed swiftly by mcully and by the hour mark, panthers led 24-14, workington didnt back down and scored with a quick dart from dummy half with the scrum half? stretching out to score, however this was merely a small reprieve for town as halliwell finished off a slick move 5 minutes later to stretch panthers lead. With 5 minutes to go munro burrowed over to put the game out of reach, before town grabbed a late consolation after hobson binned again for shouting at a tackled player , despite everyone seeing the player held up, the 4th official disagreed and the try was given.
good 2nd half display to get the win, but will need to be better next week at home to rochdale after they convincingly thrashed south wales, but a wins a win, one step closer to promotion, up the panthers!
my m.o.m. ainscough, looked dangerous every time he had possession and took his tries very well, including the 80m intercept try, while also solid at the back and when moved to centre saved a few tries too.