The visitors arrived rooted to the bottom of the table after a 33 point deduction following financial issues with their parent company. But despite the off field struggles they are a side who finished 4th in the league last season having challenged for promotion for much of the campaign and so any expectations of a straightforward win were misplaced.
Heavy rain through Friday and Saturday morning gave way just before kick off but it left tricky conditions for the players with the wet ball proving difficult to handle, especially with some less than sympathetic passing on show.
Player coach Stu Waites almost opened the scoring after 14 minutes only for his penalty attempt to come back off the post but we would play the next 10 minutes with a man advantage after YM centre Nathan Chappell was yellow carded for sliding dangerously into Waites who had slid to the ground to field a loose ball.
Far from taking advantage of the extra man we instead gifted the visitors the lead with a loose pass inside our own half being hacked on by William Burns-Smith and the covering defence failing to tidy up the loose ball under the posts allowing the winger to pick up and dive over.
Thankfully the response was swift with our opening try coming in similarly fortuitous circumstances. Having won turnover ball we chipped into space but another hack through skewed cross-field where Andrew Rollins tried to tidy it up a few metres out from the YM line. He couldn’t fully secure the ball though and as it squirted out of the side of the ruck Jake Linighan was on hand to collect and score. Waites conversion was just wide and so we still trailed by two points for most of the rest of the half.
With time ticking down towards half-time we finally grabbed the lead with a rolling maul powering to the line and Liam Bailey marshalling things at the back and touching down. Waites added the conversion to put some gloss on a scrappy first half performance.
In the second half YM continued to threaten with full-back Sam Fletcher a dangerous runner along with Stead regularly breaking through tackles. But points were hard to come by and a Waites penalty 5 minutes into the half put us a crucial two scores in front.
It was a lead we would be grateful of, when another powerful carry from centre Gavin Stead set up Hayden Quigley for a converted try to close the gap to just a point with 20 minutes still to play.
The combination of the wet conditions and fatigue did nothing to improve an already scrappy game and both teams showed glimpses of what they could do without the consistent pressure to dominate the opposition. With the result still in the balance it wasn’t until the final 5 minutes that we got the nerve settling score - Ryan Painter finished off probably our best passage of play in the match with Waites’ distribution to the fore and Adam Brown standing out with some strong carries.
A much needed win but a combination of missing out on the bonus point and Pocklington’s win against Malton & Norton means the table looks very similar albeit we have closed the gap slightly to Kendal and Durham City. With three of the next 4 games away from home, including visits to both of those sides, this victory comes at a good time and hopefully can give a confidence boost going into some tough games ahead.
West: Luke Mallinson, Lewis Scott, Zac Southern, Stu Waites, Max Tennant, Ollie Connolly, Ryan Painter (capt), Adam Coates, Andrew Rollins, Liam Pennick, Jake Linighan, John Bunter, Chris Atkins, Liam Bailey, Adam Brown.
Changes: Aidan Jackson-Smith, Michael Hogan, Ben Armstrong.
Tries: Linighan, Bailey, Painter
Cons: Waites 2
Pen: Waites
Huddersfield YMCA: Sam Fletcher, Jordan Bloem, Nathan Chappell, Gavin Stead, William Burns-Smith, Hayden Quigley, Sam Clews, Sam Slater, Ben Hill, Stuart Dyke, Max Kenworthy, Harry Garside, Charles Burnett, Mark Davison, Harry Scholes.
Changes: Sean Barrett, Andy Appleby, Kobiti Nasaqa