Stoke proves unhappy hunting ground for Newbold again

Newbold travelled up to Stoke on Trent to what has been in past seasons an unhappy hunting ground and sadly it still proved to be again, writes Phil Fereday.

The Newbold team sheet showed six changes from the previous week, mainly due to injuries but on the positive side they give a debut to scrum half Kieran Walden, who had an outstanding game in the 32-18 defeat.

The home side, playing with the wind at their back, put the first points on the scoreboard after 10 minutes with a well-taken penalty but Newbold quickly responded with a penalty from Ethan Wookey. More success was to follow after gaining possession from the restart and making ground down the wing. A quickly taken line out caught Stoke napping to enable Lee Lightowler to run in under the post to score a try converted by Ethan Wookey, 3-10 .

The game settled down with both sides having attacks that were well defended until Stoke scored two unconverted tries to go 13-10 up.

This did not deter Newbold and after some strong ball carrying between forwards and backs once again Stoke conceded a penalty that was kicked by Ethan Wookey 13-13. On the stroke of half time Stoke scored a converted try after a penalty was awarded to them that reduced Newbold down to 14 men with a yellow card for 20-13.

In the eight minutes of injury time played, the home side added another converted try making to turn around at 27-13.

Newbold kept possession at the start of the second half, but could not break down the home defence, frustratingly missing some chances.

Finally a well-positioned cross field kick/pass from Josh Cooke was collected by Jamie Mapletoft to score in the corner, 27-18. Newbold desperately threw everything into attack only to see Stoke from a breakdown score a final try 32-18.

This weekend Stratford upon Avon visit Parkfield Road.