A Nine Try Haul Carries The Panthers 1stXV Further up the League

With confidence brimming from last weeks' encounter whereby Chesterfield were the only team not to concede any points against Lincoln this season, the 1stXV wanted to ensure their efforts were not in vain to lower league opposition Mellish.

Looking over the results throughout the season, the league has been full of surprises and upset with promotion being in the grasp of five teams at any one point, a few costly games have prevented guaranteed promotion for Chesterfield. Nevertheless, a battle for fourth and potentially third position with Kesteven is enough to keep the fire stoked.

The team arrived early to dry but very windy conditions at Mellish's ground, the pitch itself in great condition and conducive to a fast game. Once warming up, Chesterfield started to appreciate just how disruptive the wind had the potential to be, with that in mind the plan was simple: tight forward gameplay with quick hands to the backs, a few crash balls from the centre's Nick Fenton and Ben Bunting then to the next phase with the Chris Cooper at Fly half to distribute to the wingers and full back.

Once the game kicked off it became apparent that although residing at the bottom of the table Mellish were by no means a walk in the park, their pack were strong, with experience and probably along with Boston the only pack to really cause any grief in the scrums and mauls. Initially it started to look like Chesterfield had not woken up properly and were falling in to the old trap of resting on their laurels to win the game, that said, once the travel weary team got in to the swing of things they started to gently persuade the opposition to their way of thinking.

Ashley Holland started to dominate along with Jamie Barnett in the jumping stakes utilsing every inch of their frames, once the ball was caught they managed to deliver some destructive runs with the flankers Christian and Liam rarely far behind them for support. Both flankers were all over the pitch, barely taking time for breath and the former finding himself at the wrath of the referee and being sin binned for a high tackle. Rob Davison was working hard to throw the ball in the line outs with great precision taking great pressures with his props on their shoulders and along with the back three ensured their strength and practice on the scrum machine during the week was not wasted.

With the forward eight starting to get in to the swing of things and taking on the large opposition pack, they were securing much of the ball and managing to turn the rucks over at critical moments. Then the game plan started to produce results , a couple of charging runs and clean ball produced by the forwards managed to get Adam Miles in the corner for the first try of the game much to the relief of the supporters and coach Derek Sherlock.

Little time passed to see the second try from the domineering Nick Fenton at No.12 then a little gem came from Adam Miles, who took the ball from a kick and in an unlikely turn decided to chip the ball which bounced and fell in his hands for a try under the posts. The final try before half time came from Liam O'Neill who spotted the ball drift out of the scrum close to Mellish's try line and darted forward to pick-up and place under the posts much to the bemusement of the opposition.

The half time talk from coach Derek was stern but fair, although comfortably in the lead many mistakes we being made and penalties were gifted to Mellish as a result. With this in mind, Chesterfield launched an aggressive attack but not without upset, Mellish returned to the game with a good try and kept looking dangerous with the ball in hand but the visitors' continuous pressure prevailed resulting in two tries from Jordan Grayson offloaded from Barry Wood and Liam O'Neill respectively. Ben Bunting eager to get in on the action made his mark by getting a hat trick of tries by exploiting his pace and strength on the outside. His final try was gifted from Ian Watson whom a fast and unpredictable runner brought in from the 2ndXV was caught by the foot with only 15 metres to the line yet managed to off load to Bunting hot on his heels. By this point Mellish although beaten had not given up to their credit; it must be noted that their league position by no way reflects their game structure and desire to play rugby.

With the final whistle blown Chesterfield were relieved to count their nine try and five conversion tally two weeks prior to their clash with the unbeaten leaders Melton Mowbray.