‘Port tee up top of table battle
STOCKPORT turned in a complete performance to secure a 24-0 win in this twice postponed fixture against Douglas.
Scoring four excellent tries to secure a bonus point and defending so well that a determined Douglas side finished pointless.
This was certainly Stockport’s best effort of the season, it was a really good all round performance and so many were mentioned on the touchlines as making positive contributions it would be wrong to pick out any individuals in this report.
This result puts Stockport in second place in the table and makes next week’s trip to Carlisle a top of the table clash.
Starting well Stockport had a chance of a very early try after a kick was charged down and it looked like wing Greg Newton was in for a try but the referee felt the touch down had not been completed.
Only minutes later some great continuity by Stockport, involving forwards and backs took Simon Green close to the line and the recycled ball was moved left for wing Matt King to go over to score under the posts, 7-0.
Stockport continued to show some good skill and strong running and on 17 minutes the ball went left again and Tom Eaton’s pass gave fullback Rhodri Mayor a run before he interchanged passes with Newton to get the touch down, the conversion hit the post to make it 12-0.
However this was in no way going to be an easy game, a series of penalties to Douglas were kicked to touch close to the Stockport line but excellent defence kept them out.
The visitors applied sustained pressure for the last 10 minutes of the half and may well rue not kicking their penalties after the Stockport defence proved so solid. 12-0 at half time.
Stockport had the best possible start to the second half with a try after only two minutes.
They carried the ball from half way, with breaks by Rory Austin and Simon Green and some strong running and good continuity by the forwards resulted in substitute wing Richard Sackville-West going over wide out, there was no conversion to make it 17-0.
There seemed to be an endless stream of penalties against Stockport and Douglas kept the home side pinned in their own half for much of the second period.
The Stockport defence was very stretched but tackles were made and the forwards battled well to keep Douglas from scoring as they applied a lot of pressure on the Stockport line.
The visitors went close from a tapped penalty 10 metres out but they knocked on over the line and Stockport won the scrum and Eaton cleared to 30 metres out.
With the game well into injury time Stockport again produced some good recycling and movement to get into the Douglas half and Matt King got the ball 30 metres out and jinked through the Douglas tacklers to run in to score, securing the bonus point.
With McGovern’s conversion the final score was 24-0, not really reflecting how closely the two sides were matched.
Next week is away at top of the table Carlisle and The Stockport President, Clive Oldham is taking a coach of supporters for the day trip.