Chorley Panthers 16 - 19 Bury Broncos
What a game!! Hard-fought to the end. Bury went with 6 first-teamers missing and another who only got there at half time, and to be honest I thought we'd struggle but the boys proved me wrong. A very tight first half saw the ref absolutely cane us, with a count of about 10-2 against us. Still, we went in to make it 0-6, Chorley scored out wide just before half time to make it 4-6 at the break.
Second half we started poorly and we were again caned and piggybacked up the field on the back of loads more penalties, but managed a drop goal to make it 4-7. Chorley then took advantage and ran in 2 converted tries to make it 16-7, and looked like running away with it. But we stepped up with a nice try down the middle to make it 16-13, and then with 5 mins to go we threw it wide and the winger stepped inside 2 and carried another over, converted to 16-19. Was his first touch of the ball and his season debut!!
That 5 minutes turned into 15 as the ref stopped the clock for everything, though granted we were slowing things down to run the clock down. Then virtually on the death Chorley put a cross-field kick in, their winger took jumped and took it well, but dropped it as he went to ground it. Thank fck!
Got to say I'm buzzing, that was a hard-fought win with a weakened side. Chorley are improved from last year and should go ok, they never gave up and played the game in great spirit.
Now for a much-needed beer(s)!!!
