Sedgie headed off to 3rd in the league Winlaton for a fixture that saw us bag no return in 3 attempts last season, this was always going to be a difficult game.

The game kicked off and Sedgie actually started really brightly, we started well applying pressure to Winlaton in both attack and defence and were winning some great turnovers, Peter Gray, Ben Norris and as usual Will Johnson were willing carriers and it was good to see us mark up in defence and apply pressure.

Winlaton were first to score, somewhat against the run of play after 10 minutes of play in their first real foray into the Sedgie 22. Undeterred Sedgie set about the task again and were making inroads, Mark Baldwin was spotting the rush defence with some deft kicking and when they held back was picking out the runs of Phil Dawson and Lawrence Oliver really well.

On 15 mins the first real problem arrived, following a ruck which Sedgie had stolen a fight broke out between a Winlaton player and Paul Wilkinson, punches were thrown by both sides but only Paul was given a yellow card. Discussing with Frag after the game he said he was retaliating and as we often see its usually the retaliation that gets punished. I suppose it could have been red so we can at least be thankful for that. Winlaton were to score twice more whilst reduced to 14 men to stretch the lead to 21 - 0. Frustrated Mark Baldwin made some comments to the referee and was duly sent off. No complaints from us on that one, passion can overspill sometimes and as I said to Marko after the game... He is a gobby T**t but he is OUR gobby T**t, he has apologised to all so will see what comes back for that one.

Sedgie down to 13 and potentially in trouble, we actually took our first points whilst 2 men down from a penalty kick with Owen Robinson continuing his good form from the tee. We added a further 2 pens from Owens boot before half time but unfortunately, Winlaton added another try to finish the half 28-9 ahead.

At half time, the chat was all around upping the work rate and having a go, we felt if we could get a score we would give ourselves a chance. It was nice to see the lads showing a bit of belief in themselves and the second half showed the Sedgie spirit we had shown at times last season.

Sedgie started really brightly and were first to score with some great hands and quick thinking Oliver released Danny Wolfe who beat his oppsosite number to score our first try, converted by Owen Robinson - 28 - 16 - Game on!

Unfortunately, and crucially, Winlaton scored next, this was a bit of a blow as it came from a turn over and they broke well into our 22 before we could stop them. A series of drives and the extra man was all they needed. 33 - 16. Game over?

Sedgie got back down into Winlaton territory and Will Johnson turned a ball over in their 22, making inroads James Watson picked support line and drove over to score, Owen again slotting the extras. 33 - 23, game back on!

Winlaton to be fair set about closing the game out really well and held the ball for much of the last 10 minutes, when we did win the ball back a driving run from Phil Dawson into WInlatons 22 was halted, and when Winlaton illegally tried to win it back a penalty in front of the posts on 80 mins for a losing bonus point seemed the obvious. To the coaches horror Nathan Waterhouse (Who was having a great game) tapped and passed the ball out to Dan Lawson, a strong drive from him took us close before Waterhouse swept around and released Dawson who found Danny Wolfe who scored in the corner no extras from Owen this time but losing BP secured. Just goes to show coaches dont have all the answers.. we often talk about playing what you see and im delighted we did that, spurning an easy kick because we saw an opportunity to score a try shows good creativity and we will need that going forward. Well done lads!

Unfortunately, there was no time left to have a shot at the win but another 5 minutes and I fancy we might just have done it.

A losing bonus point is a decent return for us away from home and something that has eluded us so far this season, to get it from the position we were in on 20 mins is great to see and I fancy another 5 mins we could have had even greater reward.

Our thanks to Winlaton for hosting us and to the ref for the game.

We have a week off next week, recharge batteries do some more recovery and heal up some injuries before we go again on 9th November (2:15pm kick offs start) v Gosforth. Hopefully we can put a similar performance in and get some more league points under our belt to start climbing away from the bottom 3.