Panthers vs Cleethorpes

This Saturday brought last seasons promotion pushers Cleethorpes to Dunston Lane. The home that was quickly turning into a fortress, but Panthers knew this would be no easy clash as the seasiders comfortably took the spoils home and away last year.
Chesterfield started brightly, putting the pressure on Cleethorpes from the start, only solid defence stopping an early score, but all the pressure did tell with the blue and yellows infringing on the 10m line allowing fly half Tom O'Brien to step up and send the ball sailing through the posts.
This seemed to settle the nerves a little as Panthers fitter pack looked to dominate, relentless carries from Leon Owen, Joe heath and Julian Ord keeping the visiting defence going backwards. With the away defence retreating it gave good ball for scrum half Dean Shiels to release the potent backline and good hands from centres Scott Widdowson and Glenn Grayson saw wing Aidan Butler go in at the corner.
Although Cleethorpes looked well drilled the lack of clean ball really took its toll with Panthers eager tackling stopping the attack at source on most occasions, lock George Barnes, hooker Adam Uprichard and prop Ruari BP showing great work rate in defence. The stout defence lead to turnover ball and a few quick phases later saw Tom O'Brien use all of his 6 stone power over the line with an extraordinarily out of character crash ball to extend the lead.
Panthers now looked to be cruising, with fullback Kevin Shiels now getting into the game the Chesterfield team looked dangerous from anywhere on the field and it was only a matter of time before centre and try machine Glenn Grayson went over the white wash to extend his run of tries.
Half time Chesterfield Panthers 22-0 cleethorpes.
Half time saw the introduction of big lock Dominic McGurrin and utility back Chris Cooper into the fray but little changed in terms of territory and possession, only Cleethorpes brave defence keeping the young Panthers from extending their lead, though eventually pressure would tell with Tom O'Brien going over for his second. The final score of the game was again down to strong runs penetrating the Cleethorpes line with Lee Laughton still running hard which in turn gave quick ball to release openside flanker Jack Burton who went over with a diving finish. Chesterfield were now probing the wide channels with Steve Hatt making yards at will but inaccuracies out wide stopped the score from being extended and the game ended 36-3 to the home side.
First team head coach Stephen Grainger warned "although it was fantastic to overturn last years results against Cleethorpes we are still only in second gear and if we are to fully hit our potential we need to focus, cut out our mistakes and reduce our inaccuracies as much as possible".