Another one slips away for Gensians

Published 21 Dec 2009 11:00 0 Comments

GENSIANS were denied a National Three South West double over Chinnor on Saturday after Peter Freeth's injury-time kick drifted wide of the posts, condemning the Old Bath road side to a 8-6 defeat.

Assistant coach Dave Cox admitted that this was yet another close game his men should have won.

He said: "What makes it frustrating is that you can't fault the effort the players put in.

"In the end it was poor decision-making that cost us the game."

There was plenty of drama in the final minutes of a grim struggle on a frosty pitch.

Three minutes from time with the game deadlocked at 3-3, Sid Matthews, in good form at fly-half, squeezed home a drop goal via the crossbar from a pressure position set up by a charge down in the Chinnor in-goal area.

However, failure to mark a hopeful kick into the Gensians' 22 proved fatal. It gave Chinnor the opportunity to create an overlap for winger Ben Farr who went over in the corner.

Then with time running out a Gensians grubber kick off forced a penalty 40 yards out which Freeth put tantalising wide out of the right hand post.

Chinnor members were clearing snow off the pitch right up to kick-off time as the temperature failed to rise above freezing.

Not surprisingly the conditions made for an error strewn, yet intriguing battle as both teams battled to master the tricky surface and icy ball.

Gensians survived severe early pressure and were fortunate to concede only a James Cathcart penalty in the first quarter.

They raised their game and Seb Reynolds nearly scored from a breakaway before Gensians levelled after 34 minutes through a Matthews penalty. This was advanced after interference by prop Joe Winpenny who was yellow carded.

The Old Bath Road men finished the half strongly but incredibly decided to run a penalty in front of the post five yards out and squandered the chance of a half-time lead.

In the second half both sides were unable to break down tough defences, however Gensians, despite having Craig Clements sin binned, probably had the upper hand.

Their momentum was helped by a back row shuffle in which man of the match James Watkins switched to No 8 while Rob Stapley moved to open side.

Along with Watkins, full-back Tom Allen had a lively game and centre Freeth looked back to his best.

On the plus side, injury ravaged Gensians showed their strength in depth with Scott Breadmore, Andrew Amor and Chris Horn having their first senior outings of the season.

Redingensians: Allen; Clements, Freeth, Reynolds, Flynn; Matthews, Raitt; T Saunders, Breadmore (Russell), Baker, Horn, S Hallett (Hulland), Watkins, Hopkins (Amor), Stapley.

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