Panthers exploited at Lincoln

Panthers made the journey to second place Lincoln sitting only one place behind in Midlands 3 East (North) seeking a win that would push Chesterfield into second.

In crisp conditions it would be the home side who put together an excellent demonstration of rugby capitalising on a number of Panthers injuries in key positions to punish visiting Chesterfield.

With a late change forcing flanker Grant Teagle to start the match at wing Panthers began the game well forcing Lincoln into their own half and winning a penalty that skipper Chris Ward skimmed the post with.

On the resulting restart Scrum-half Eric Wright left the field with a knee injury forcing the first reshuffle of the game seeing inside centre Ward move to scrum-half, flanker Matt Nesbit to centre and Chris Brailsford made an early appearance off the bench.

The first 15 minutes were tightly contested between the forwards but it was the home side who scored the first points as the backs spun it wide to score into the corner.

With a further injury to fly-half Carl Walker Chesterfield were once again forced to move a forward into the backs as Chris Brailsford took position on the wing and Winger Tye Rose forced to play scrum-half.

Credit due to Lincoln as some smart kicking from the fly-half put the ball consistently on the two forwards playing well out of position on the wings to score two try's from Chesterfield errors before half time.

Despite players out of position Chesterfield remained in the game as the forwards worked well to disrupt the set piece and run the ball effectively through Luke Holt, Chris Windle, Jamie Barnett and Rob Davison. Mistakes were to cost Panthers dearly as Lincoln pounced on several to score a brace of tries in quick succession by spinning the ball wide to their wingers.

Chesterfield deserved credit as despite Lincoln holding a dominant lead hard tackling and relentless chasing prevented at least three more tries.

As the floodlights came on Lincoln continued to exert pressure and the game finished on a turnover which was shipped slickly to the Lincoln winger who ran in under the posts to finish the game.

Lincoln 39 Panthers 0

Panthers: Paul Jones, Rob Davison, Steve Allen, Jamie Barnett, Alex Allen, Matt Nesbit, Chris Windle, Luke Holt, Eric Wright, Carl Walker, Grant Teagle, Chris Ward (c), Ben Bunting, Tye Rose, Glenn Grayson

Subs: Chris Brailsford, Terry Titley