Bricks lose out to Winlaton Saxons in 4th team shield, Bricks 7, Winlaton Saxons 21

Bricks let frustration at inconsistent refereeing get the better of them and ended up focusing on the referees decisions, rather than the job at hand and ended up losing the cup quarter final.

The Shield had become an obsession for all of us and yesterday we imploded big time, the Referee was changed at the last minute the appointments by Durham were a bit of a surprise, two Winlaton referees were approached,  first one asked recognised the conflict and turned it down, Second one took the roll.

This may sound like sour grapes but the Winlaton sideline Could not believe their luck, we were penalised off the park, each decision was a valid decision and we could have prevented the penalties, but did not adapt our game. Our passion for the win got the better of us and the frustration spilled over when  we were penalised for things and when Saxons did the same things it went unpunished. Listing them would be pointless, all those involved know what they were, the biggest was Stu Reay was yellow carded for questioning a decision, Dale (Saxons 2nd row) questioned decisions all game and was never penalised.

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Add the fact Winlaton played rotation subs, we pointed out they couldn’t but were ignored and key players for them went off, recovered and returned to hurt us.

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On the day Winlaton played the game, had strength in key positions; back row and  centre and took their chances and Bricks just didn’t get the break. It could have been so different had we scored in the first 20 mins when we were totally dominant and our backs were cutting through, the rest is history and Saxons go into the next round with Hartlepool. Our best wishes goes with them, they played well on the day and were very honest about how surprised they were to be going through, Good luck.