Kentish Express Ashford & District
Burdon leads rout
Winger Grant Burdon scored a hat-trick as Ashford ran in nine tries in a commanding display at winless London South East 2 bottom club Aylesford on Saturday,
Seven of them came in a dominant second-half display, and the score might have been bigger had winger Chris Baker enjoyed a better afternoon with his kicking.
Head coach Gregor Dougall and skipper Adam Knight await sterner tests as the season develops but this will do for starters, following on from the club’s first win against Thanet the previous week.
Baker and Burdon’s first topped and tailed the first half for a 10-0 lead, after Ashford were forced to defend in numbers to protect their early lead, with Bulls also missing an easy penalty chance.
However, the shackles came off after half-time, as Ashford, led by a rousing display by former skipper Peter Walsh, who celebrated his try with a Chris Ashton-esque dive under the posts, enjoyed themselves.
Dougall said: “We weren’t accurate enough in the first half and lacked precision. We tended to take things on ourselves, as opposed to playing our usual game and it ended up being scrappy.
“We spoke about it at half-time which was a good time to re-assess things and get back out there. We got it right, went back to playing how we wanted to and scored some great team tries.”
Aaron Sage went off at half-time with an eye injury, while Rhys Fussell and Shaun Woolford both needed ice packs on shoulder problems. Jake Fletcher started the secondhalf try spree four minutes after the restart, Baker’s conversion bouncing off the bar to safety. Walsh added another try two minutes later, Baker converting for a 22-0 lead. Burdon went over for another unconverted effort after 56 minutes before Aylesford got their first converted score eight minutes later while a six-man brawl was going on at the other end.
Baker and Lewis Stimpson added further tries, Burdon then got his third before Aylesford scored again – only to miss the conversion.
Fussell returned to complete the scoring, Ashford maintaining momentum after hooker Shane Redman started the initial move. Baker missed the conversion with the last kick of the game.