Match Report

MERIT TABLE – 6^th October 07

Thurrock 24 .v. 12 May & Baker

Last Saturday May and Baker had an early kick off so both sides could watch an epic England victory. Due to the early kick off, injuries, and holidays May & Baker are still not anywhere near full strength. Luckily some new recruits help us to get a team together for the game. Unfortunately, Thurrock was at the other end of the scale they had players just returning. Thurrock had an undefeated run since September 06, but this did not worry May & Baker in fact the team assembled were confident of being the team to stop the Thurrock serge for the title. 

In windy conditions neither team could really kick ball, so this game was going to be a tight midfield battle with Thurrock using their big pack and crash ball centre. If May & Baker could have held the Thurrock pack May & Baker had the backs to win the game. 

The breakthrough came for Thurrock after 25 minutes when a driving maul from their pack put them in the corner, followed by a failed conversion attempt. M & B went to sleep and gifted the Thurrock pack their second unconverted score.

Discipline was costing Baker’s and some harsh words from Captain Andy Yarrow seemed to motivate the side again. Quick work from stand in scrum half Brian Eyles and bruising running from Tony Bullet & Dave O’ Sullivan earned M & B a penalty 15 yards out. Eyles took this quick and was tackled short of the line but in-form flanker Danny Green was in support to fight threw a tackle and score under the Thurrock posts. The one-armed hero had struck two weeks in succession. Engwell added the two. The game remained tight until half time.

Due to injuries more changes were forced at half time. Still with new faces on the pitch M & B came out fighting. Sadly, it did not take long before new prop Mike Dacey was forced off with a shoulder injury that he had surgery on later that night. During all this in a frantic first 10 minutes of the second half Thurrock managed to edge away with a converted score. Again M & B did not take this ling down, Good breaks from Back row partners Green and Yarrow; forced Chris Young threw a tight gap and forced Thurrock to give away another penalty. M & B tapped and were unlucky not to score threw former Barking duo Josh Procter & Dean Mason, but it was third time lucky as Brian Eyles pushed himself over the Thurrock line for a well worked try. Engwell failed to convert.

With M & B only trailing by 5 points their was a belief that Bakers would be able to stop the Thurrock undefeated streak. This fantasy was shorted lived as the M & B pack were tired and domination was going to Thurrock. From turnover ball at scrum time Thurrock sealed the victory threw another forwards try.

May & Baker are struggling at this stage of the season with unfamiliarity, a team that plays together week in week out will know each other better than a team thrown together late in the week. This has been showing over the past few weeks and it is hurting the pride, passion, and belief in the few M & B regulars. We need to get a squad together and we need to bond. New players are still welcome and had it not been for new players over the recent weeks M & B would have been a lot worse off!!! We hope to keep these new players instead of scaring them off with rubbish results! We need a wake up call soon or the season could turn into a relegation battle again. There are a lot of players not around and we welcome you back as soon as possible!!! COME ON BOYS LETS FRONT UP AND PROVE WE DESERVE TO WEAR THE BLACK AND RED SHIRTS!!!!! As always thank you to all the people who got up early to come to Thurrock & support us. Newt week we have a break from league duty and take a trip to Harlow in a friendly. Our biggest thanks goes to Tony Bullet who returns from Spain to help the boys out we hope to see you soon mate!!! 

MAN OF THE MATCH: Danny Green 

SQUAD: Tony Bullet, Darren Robinson, Burak Erceri, Rob Patten, Dave O’ Sullivan, Danny Green, Colin Combden, Andy Yarrow, Gary Lock, Brian Eyles, Mickey Engwell, Josh Procter, Dean Mason, Paul Day, Darren Noakes, Chris Young, Harry Lisbon, Jamie Yates, Mike Dacey, John Terry.