Worksop 5 Casuals 8

Midlands 3 East North

Worksop 5 Casuals 8

Casuals scraped a close win in this dour encounter away at Worksop.

In a game littered with countless mistakes, handling errors in abundance by boths sides, strewn with a stream of penalties, and a lack of advantage being played, it was Casuals who had the resolve to come through and grab the league points.

Tom Goodman and Chris Brelsford were given their league debuts, and it was Brelsford who impressed most, especially when he switched to centre on the departure of Andy Milne with a recurrence of a rib injury.

Casuals were the more dominant side, but took 20 minutes to gain any cohesion,and it was Mark Higgins who opened the scoring with a penalty.

Although they held the lead for the next 30 minutes Casuals scorned 2 easy try scoring opportunities when they kicked the ball instead of passing with the try line almost wide open.

In the 2nd half it was Worksop who scored, when Casuals defence made a complete hash of clearing a speculative kick, and Worksops forward drove over for the try.

However Casuals started to show more aggression, with Joe Barton and Howard Sanderson making a nuisance of themselves harrying Worksop, and eventually Casuals backs started to string together some moves.

Joe Barton and Dave Mellor were the architects of the move that lead to Casuals try, Barton took the ball upfield and Mellor then chose to take the ball into contact instead of releasing it, and when the Worksop defenders were sucked in, the ball went smoothly down the line, and Brelsford finished off for his debut try.

The game was Casuals, but they had to endure a nail biting last few minutes, during which time the referee even penalised a Casuals spectator for shouting, unfortunately the official having his aural orifice distressed by the noise, being too close to the offender.

Next week Casuals welcome Oakham to Canalside for a 2.15pm kick off.
The game will be preceded by a buffet lunch for the old and not quite so old ex players and supporters.