Sutton & Epsom 17 – 10 Shelford Development  

Saturday saw the development squad travel to Sutton and Epsom for their third league fixture of the season. After a narrow defeat against Worthing and a run away win against Portsmouth the squad were looking to put together a more consistent performance.

Despite a late cry off in the second row, which led to Dave Archibald stepping into the breach and starting in the second row, the game started very well with Shelford dictating the play, kicking to the corners, functioning well at the set piece and creating a good opportunity for the first score of the game through strong running from Tim ‘Chalkie’ White on the right wing. The squad then managed to go walk about for 20 minutes and concede 3 scores through simple missed tackles. The referee was not helping matters by rigorously enforcing rules that neither team had ever heard of before, but this was the same for both teams and Sutton & Epsom kept their heads and did not let these strange decisions effect their play as much as Shelford.  

At half time, 17-0 down Shelford knew exactly what they had to do, stick to their games plan, control the ball and take responsibility for individual and team performance. The second half started out where the first left off with a missed tackle leading to Sutton breaking away, but the attack was snuffed out and Shelford then began to exert pressure, put together some good phases and start to take control. An excellent break from James Worthington nearly saw Shelford get on the score sheet. It was a piece of individual magic from Chris Yeomans that eventually got the team off the mark, taking a quick 22 drop out and going most of the way before off loading to Liam Russell to finish off in the corner. The second score came from a number of good phases, with an overlap created on the blind and quick hands to James Briggs who outpaced the cover defence to score in the same corner.

With Shelford dictating the play, 10 minutes still on the clock and a couple of big hits seeing both Suttons Half-backs leave the field the come back was well and truly on. Unfortunately the handbags were out and Dave Archibald flew in late which led to a Yellow Card leaving Shelford with 14 men on the park and 5 minutes to play. The squad kept going to the final whistle but couldn’t find another score and went down 17-10. It was a very disappointing result and the squad must work hard at training this week to develop the consistency in their play that is necessary to be successful in this league. As well as training hard the squad must also work on its discipline on the pitch, stick to the game plan and work more effectively together to be successful in future outings.

Next week sees the Squad take on Barnes at Home and everyone will need to be at training this week Tuesday and Thursday if we are to get things right on Saturday.