Having dominated play, and regularly having numerical advantage with Brods having three sin bins in close succession, the defeat was hard to take and players and supporters were left in disbelief at full time.
It was the same errors occurring for the Whites, as they struggled to convert pressure into points. This was influenced through poor decision making and basic mistakes. It was also a poor day for kicking with Chris Sainty missing with all five of his chances, which is extremely rare.
Brods started the game on the attack and starved the Friaragemen of the ball for the first 10 minutes as they grounded themselves in the Rovers’ 22. They were rewarded for their efforts as they received a penalty which full back Matty Hoyle successfully kicked.
Despite their good start, the visitors were soon dealt a blow of yellow cards with Liam Scott leaving the field on 28 minutes and team mate Luke Brocklehurst following him to the sin bin 7 minutes later. Regardless of this, the Whites still failed to put points on the board for the remainder of the half.
However the home side finally made the final phase when the pack drove towards the line with Jonny Cushlow being the man to touch down. There were also many other opportunities which were halted by good defence. Brods suffered another yellow card after the Rovers’ try with Matty Hoyle being sent his marching orders.
It was Rovers who were to receive a sin bin of their own next, with Brian Foreman seeing yellow for being offside. Brods took advantage of the penalty with Oliver Akroyd kicking it, to put his side in to the lead 6-5.
The Friaragemen then seemed to crumble and they caved in when they allowed Brods to increase their new lead with an array of passing along the back line and Scott being the man at the end of the overlap who crossed over the line.
With only a converted try needed to take us back in to the lead, Rovers should have been pulling out all of the stops, but instead in the last 10 minutes they conceded more points and also the opportunity of a bonus point, when Brods scrum half Ian Mallard scored under the posts. Rovers had a bit of luck with Matty Hoyle’s conversion hitting both posts and bouncing off the crossbar.
The fifth yellow card was then to appear with Rovers’ Darren Smith being the culprit. Brods were then awarded a penalty which Matty Hoyle secured and produced the winning score line of 19-5.
The odds seem to be stacked against Rovers, who need a lot of luck, and wins, in order to stay in the league. However it is not impossible and the side should now focus on the next three weeks which sees them on the road. The first journey to Driffield will be an extremely hard one, with us never being successful at Kelleythorpe. Lets hope that we can change the record book, as we proved earlier this season when beat Driffield at the Friarage.
Rovers: Masshedar, Lilley, Foreman (Sin Bin 57), Coulson, B Cushlow, Sainty (A Arnell 68), King, Tucker, J Cushlow, Wise (I Pinchen 51), D Smith (Sin Bin 79), Thubron (c), S Hall, Atkins (Bullock 68), Grazier.
Old Brodleians: M Hoyle (Sin Bin 46), Standeven (Marshall 69), Scott (Sin Bin 28), Hotham, Butler, O’Connor, Mallard, Thompson (Skinner 44), McLaughlin, Brocklehurst (Sin Bin 35), Hanson (Scrimshaw 51), Willis, Finn, B Hoyle (c), Akroyd.
Referee: Dave Hines (Durham Society)