Park House FC

Desperate for a nice run following last years shameful knockout to Erith, Park were full of confidence from their league wins, although we knew Heathfield were going to be a strong side, and they were. Front row told me they were the best pack we had played all year.

Park struggled to get any rhythm going throughout the game, which can mainly be put down to just not being as up for it as we should have been.

Firstly a comment on the refereeing. He turned up at 2.30, the kick off was 2.30. He did not know the rules as to what happens when we went to extra time, so we played 10 minutes each way after a H&W coach explained the rules to him. And he made an absolute stinker, by obviously deciding he was going to yellow card the first infringement (by either side, just happened to be us) in a 22. He claimed it was for repeated infringement, it was Park Houses 2nd penalty of the game after 5 mins of the game gone, so go figure. Then he totally ****ed up as this made him totally inconsistent by not binning anyone from H&W despite 5 penalties in a row in their 22, with tom bailey going over the line if they had been back the 10 yards, wasn't til we made it clear that it just wasn't consistent that he finally binned a H&W player, which was again an unfair decision

was most disappointing as for much of the game he was a good referee, but that decision was so poor and pre meditated it tarnished his performance frankly

anyway, to the game

Park drew first blood with some nice phases of play before Turner dummied and broke through the line inside the 22 to slide under the posts. Converted

H&W dominated much of the first half, with the strong wind always going to help territory for them. They answered with 2 tries of their own, after sustained pressure in our 22 not being able to get out of our own half.

Despite this, Park did manage some breakaways but failed to score anymore points.

With the half, Park were now attacking with the wind and much of this half was played in the H&W half. Pikey scored yet another try for his season after some strong attacking phases, the forwards setting the ball nicely to be spun out and a broken tackle and went in the corner.

Park followed this with a penalty to take a 15-10 lead

H&W stringed together much attacking play of their own. Neither team could finish off promising attacks until towards the end when H&W tied the game up.

So extra time followed. And with Turdo now back at 8, Park looked a little more settled and dominated most of this period. Park did score with 2 minutes left in the game after a push over try from a line out. Turdo stealing the ball of Tony over the line. Pikey slotted a conversion from out wide to make it 22-15

With Ceffon shouting for us to pay attention, we didn't, and the 10 broke from his own 10 through the middle and in the corner. However the conversion was narrowly missed giving Park the win

Ceffon had a stormer in the tackle with a couple of try saving tackles, Craig was also very solid at the back and stole a ball on our own line again to save the game

This was a good result against a strong and motivated side. Its a great sign that we can grind out results like this when we did play poorly

Next week, top of table clash to Gillingham away.

Training is now key, and this isn't just the 1st team, the whole club needs to start showing up. This is a key period for all 3 sides now