Flying Winger steals the show!

Ilkeston entertained Matlock hoping to turn round the defeat at Cromford Meadows earlier in the season. Max, Billy & Jay all played up for the U17s at Grimsby but it was a good turn out from the rest of the squad. After an early inspection the 1st team pitch was declared fit to play on.

Matlock only had 14 players so Ethan kindly volunteered to play for Matlock. Early pressure by the Elks resulted in good ball in the backs allowing Nathan to show his pace and score after 7 mins, converted by Adam. 7-0

Matlock came back into the game with some good runs from the forwards with the Matlock No8 showing up well, some good tackling kept them at bay.
The next ten minutes was fairly even with both sides trying to play running rugby, Sean made a great defensive tackle and ripped the ball from his opponent, this turned possession over and allowed the ball to be worked again to Nathan who out sprinted the defence to score again, Adam also added the extras on 26 mins.14-0. There were no further scores in the fist half.

Matlock played the second half with the slope and were soon on the attack, they worked their way into the Elks 22 and good forward play saw them drive over on 40 mins, this was converted to make it 14-7

The Elks were quick to respond and following some quick recycling were able to put Nathan in to complete his hat trick on 44 mins 19-7
Matlock again battled back and after some good line out work forced their way towards the Elks try line, at first they were kept out but continued pressure eventually told and the forwards crashed over to score on 55 mins to make it 19-12.

Matlock were looking strong at this stage but fair play to the Elks they used the bench well and James Marriott and Rhys came on to give some fresh legs to the team. Josh, Harry and John Taylor carried the ball strongly and after several phases won the ball on the left to release Nathan who took his chance well with great speed to collect his fourth try on 66 mins to make the score 24-12

Good pressure again took the Elks into the Matlock 22 and after a high tackle on Sean the kick for goal from Adam was successful on 68 mins to bring the game to a close at 27-12.

This was a much improved performance with the whole squad playing well, Nathan stole the show with his 4 try haul but without the rest of the team winning good ball this would not have been possible.

Hopefully with the other lads back from the U17s this can only strengthen the squad, due to bad weather some games have been postponed so the next planned game is Mansfield away on Jan 27th, after that it is Newark in the NLD cup, so some hard games to come.
Keep up the good work!
Nick