Beverley’s rollercoaster season goes on with defeat against Goole

BEVERLEY went down 20-18 to fellow Yorkshire Division One strugglers Goole in a tense but entertaining game played in great spirits.

After early pressure Beverley countered well with a quick break by Phil Duboulay, offloaded to Jake Boardman but unconverted.

A few minutes later an offside penalty brought Goole back into the game.

Then came the match-defining moment. What appeared to be a good tackle by Beverley centre Louis Butler on 15 minutes was deemed by the referee to be a dangerously high head impacting tackle, which by the law book warranted a red card.

The tide turned in favour Goole, but it wasn’t until 32 minutes that the breakthrough came with a converted try.

Beverley started the second half strongly.

From receiving the ball from the kick-off 16 phases later they were on the opponents try line but ended up capitalising with just a penalty for the tackler not releasing, converted by Duboulay.

On 58 minutes a second penalty this time for crossing was dispatched by Duboulay and Beverley took the lead for the second time at 11-10.

The lead was pinched back a few minutes later for a sealing off penalty.

On 30 minutes Duboulay took advantage of a broken line, with an excellent break through the middle and offloaded to the available Boardman for him to finish near the posts making it an easy conversion for 18-13.

Goole were not done though and were beginning to expose gaps in the tiring Beverley 14 defensive line, weakened also by injuries to Jacob Holmes (broken nose) and Dan Lee (knee).

With three minutes to go Goole exploited a Beverley broken defensive line, spreading the ball wide after a 10m offside penalty to dot down in the corner alongside the touchline, which was brilliantly converted for

20-18.

In the last minute a penalty was awarded for a side entry against Goole 45m out to the left.

Duboulay stepped forward in an attempt to win the game.

The accuracy was there but the length was not. Kicking the ball into touch ended the game and the crestfallen Beavers fell to their knees, whilst their opponents were ecstatic with their first win of the season.