With prop Ryan Phillips missing the coaches took the opportunity to blood Anth Carr at hooker with Brett Cullinane moving over to tighthead. We also had the luxury of Andrew Davies on the bench at the end of his 12 week ban and went into a an early lead through a Davy Tighe penalty from 25 metres ... and then proceeded to win every home line-out ball as we camped in the opposition half.
But the pressure failed to yield more points in the opening half hour.Panda came close, after a sweet move along the backs, but after beating his man he was caught just five metres out.
As the pressure mounted home hooker Don Dickinson was sin-binned on 25 minutes for stamping on Darren Thomas in a ruck.
Once again we failed to take advantage, and it was the home side who levelled after 33 minutes with a penalty from stand off Matthew Jinks. He was helped by back chat from the West forwards which gave him an extra 10 metres.
Our dominance finally paid off with the last move of the half and it was a solo effort from star man Darren Thomas. From a scrum he dummied to go blind and opened up a gap. He evaded three tacklers to touch down under the posts to make it 10-3 at the break.
The second half began in the same way and Dash should have had an even better try on 52 minutes. This time Hare came in off his wing to make thirty metres and, when the ball was recycled, Thomas danced his way through the defence to race for the posts. But he was tackled by Jinks as he went to touch down and instead knocked forward.
The home side took heart from their break and mounted their first series of attacks of the game.
The turning point came on the hour. Brett Cullinane had to be carried off after damaging knee ligaments and with him went much of West’s dominance. Andrew Davies replaced him with Stuart Bennett moving to the front row.
The unbalanced West pack then proceeded to be shunted off every set piece, and there was a let off when the normally reliable Jinks missed an easy penalty on 65 minutes after Henry Tones had killed the ball.
Morpeth did manage to level the scored on 75 minutes when scrum half Peter Jackson touched down after his pack had pushed West back over their line.
Shocked into action we came straight back and Davy Tighe immediately restored the lead with a superb 30 metre penalty from wide on the left. This was after the home forwards were judged to have entered a maul from the side.
This looked to be the winning score but on 78 minutes referee Dave Routledge took exception to something that Stuart Bennett said - this was after he had awarded Morpeth a scrum. But instead he gave a penalty and made it ten metres from where the scrum had been.
Jinks hammered the ball into the corner to set up another push over try, this time for hooker Dickinson.
Cullinane’s injury is a major worry as we go into a vital period and so is our inability to turn possession into points. That's not to mention our verbal indiscipline.

Morpeth: T Wilkinson, A Rogers, D Galbraith, D Nelless, N Harper, M Jinks, P Jackson, R Morrison, D Dickinson, S Ramsey, J Stafford [capt], D Hutton, J Walton, I Menzies, J Hillier-hall. Reps: A Nelless, C Reynolds, R Leiper.

West: P Wallis, P Miller [D Abrahams 50], T Gamwell, P Hodgson, A Hare, D Tighe, D Thomas, M Cholmondeley, A Carr, B Cullinane [A Davies 60], C Miller, P Henderson, J Boatman, H Tones [ D Boatman 68], S Bennett [capt].