Greyhound 20 pts Copsewood 3 pts

GREYHOUND were left frustrated despite beating the weather and Midlands Five West (South) visitors Copsewood, writes Richard Prime.

The city side struggled to break down an enthusiastic and committed Copsewood side and it was only two tries in the final eight minutes which underlined their victory.

But their tally of three tries was not enough to earn them a bonus point victory and they had to be content with the four points for the win, the ninth in their nine outings.

“We turn up here and play against some good teams and put them to bed,” said playmaker Dave Bromage.

“But against not so good teams, we just don’t turn up.

“It is frustrating as a team; we needed five points today but we didn’t get them.

“Last night sitting at home, I didn’t expect us to be playing and it was good to get a game in but it was not really the result that we wanted.

“But we’ll take four points.”

With the pitch in good condition, considering that it had been under three inches of snow the previous day, Greyhound made a good start.

With 10 minutes played, a quicklytaken tap penalty saw Jamie Gibbons storm over for the opening try. Bromage added the conversion and kicked a penalty – the ball bouncing over off the bar – eight minutes later.

But, after that, Greyhound were often forced back on defence by the lowly-ranked Coventry-based visitors.

Copsewood rarely looked like breaching the strong home defence but they cut arrears by dropping a goal with 15 minutes remaining and this finally seemed to stir Greyhound into action.

But replacement Luke Williams was twice held up after crossing the line and it was with just eight minutes remaining that Bromage sent Gibbons over for his second try of the afternoon.

Bromage’s kick clipped the outside of an upright but James Hybart powered over for the third try to round off the win in the 78th minute.

The win moves Greyhound eight points clear at the top of the table but that looks set soon be reduced to three – the city side are to be deducted five points for playing an unregistered player, although the matter is under appeal. But the team remain focused on going up a stage.

“Our target is promotion,” affirmed Bromage. “If we win the rest of our games then we are up. It would be good to get up a division because there is much less travelling.”