Melbourne lose to last minute penalty

In the abscence of Matt ''Shakespeare'' Derbyshire, Pete ''Banter Brigade'' Ilott writes....

The pitch was soft, muddy and there was a strong cold wind across the pitch, with Melbourne playing up the hill (that's for Morris)

Mascot Max was absent.

Morris Hall took on the touch judge duties, to be replaced by Jack Pearce in the second half.

Matt Smith returned to the front row, with Ash ''promoted from the 2nd team'' Stringer coming in for the injured Tommy ''gas man'' Howard -(another 6 months out??).

The first 20 minutes saw errors from both sides due to the difficult conditions and a succession of scrums, with most of the play in the Melbourne half. Matlock had the edge up front but Pagey and Rob coped well. The line-outs were even. From Melbourne's first excursion into the Matlock 22 they scored. A line-out was won and the ball recycled to see Michael ''try machine'' Lowery to reach over. Euan Holden converted. 7-0. Theo, on his best behaviour this week, was solid in defence and attack. Rob ''Ashton'' Foster (editor - ask Stringer about that one) made ground up the Right wing. Fish was solid and Joe continued with his normal ''smashing'' of recent weeks. All the pack were immense.

Matlock hit back with a Try in the corner for 7-5. Crossing in the midfield from Matlock saw Melbourne win a penalty and Euan converted this to make the score 10-5 and it remained this until half time. Both defences had dominated.

The second half continued with defences to the fore. Will ''high tackle'' Judge was lucky not to get carded for a high tackle with the Matlock supporters oddly screaming for a red card - they must have know we were playing West Bridgford next week??? Melbourne defended well, but after a series of penalties, the referee finally had enough and carded Chris Purce. MElbourne defended the next 10 minutes superbly and soon after Chris's return won a penalty in front of the post. Euan extended the score to 13-5.

The turning point of the game came after 69 minutes. After some more Matlock pressure and some excellent Melbourne defence, Tony ''why did I do that'' used his hand in a ruck and was yellow carded. Pop was brought back on for the unfortunate Purce but Matlock pushed the ensuing scrum over for a converted Try. 13-12 to Melbourne. Both sides pushed and Melbourne unfortunatley conceded a penalty in front of the posts (despite MAtlock turning down a succession of kickable penalties???)

Melbourne could not make the decisive breakthrough in the last minute and ended up short 13-15, though gaining a bonus point. This sees Melbourne 5th in the league

A good performance throughout. Defence strong again and Melbourne had a willingness to play expansive rugby. Closing out games like this is the lesson learnt as Melbourne should have won the game. Playing with 14 men for 20 minutes does not help either.

MOTM - Theo De Vies

Next week and away trip to West Bridgford.