Blaydon 15, Huddersfield 26

The lighter Blaydon pack were up against it in the near arctic conditions and whilst both sides struggled to hang on to the ball at times it was the Crow Trees boys who made the greater number of errors, contributing much to their own downfall.
At 10-19 early in the second period they had the one real opportunity to turn it around but with skipper Keith Laughlin leading the way they battered the Huddersfield line but just failed to make the breakthrough and the chance was gone.
“Obviously we are disappointed” said head coach Matt Thompson ” there were times in the game when we applied pressure in the right arears but didn’t come away with any points”.
Well prompted by 2 bursts into the 22 from James Cooney they started the better but failed with a simple penalty opportunity and typically on the day conceded the first try with a poor clearance kick. The visitors ran it straight back through former Blaydon hooker Fran Entressengle for centre Tom Owen to cross with ease.
When they got back on the front foot a penalty was kicked to the corner and a rolling maul held up on the line leading to a further infringement and a repeat maul from which Laughlin was driven over.
But back came Huddersfield and from a knock-on by a Blaydon back in his own 22, prop forward Adam Blades scored from the resulting scrummage. On 32 minutes they turned down a kickable penalty to opt for a scrum and winger Elliot Knight was in for a 3rd try.
In the final minute of the half Drew Davison set off on a solo run into the visitors 22 and when Huddersfield infringed again Davison was on hand to score from the line-out possession and make it 10-19 at the break.
Laughlin was over the line but held up in Blaydon’s best spell and then stopped just short from the scrum but the effort petered out and Huddersfield went on to secure a bonus point try through lock-forward Austen Thompson.
In the final minute replacement Calum Eastwood went over for a Blaydon consolation score but Huddersfield deserved their 5 points.
“We will have to play better than that to avoid relegation but we are still optimistic and I know the boys are capable” said Thompson, and Blaydon now have 6 games from which to secure their National 2 status, 4 of them at home with the final 3 due to be played on the artificial pitch at Kingston Park, home of the Newcastle falcons, whilst work commences on the installation of a similar AGP surface at Crow Trees.

John Brennan