Young Hoppers no match for Sedgley Park

After last week’s local derby against Fylde, several of the regular squad were sidelined through injury and illness so it was a youthful team that took to the field in the pleasant, late summer sunshine.

Hoppers quickly found themselves under pressure in their own 22 and two Sedgley tries from Cam Crampton and Connor James, in less than 10 minutes, both converted by Steven Collins got their hosts off to a flying start and set the pattern for the match.

The home side continued their attacks and whilst Grasshoppers had some short phases of possession, much of the play was in the Preston half.

A penalty, confidently struck by Fly-Half Ben Pearson, finally put points on the scoreboard but three more converted tries by Sedgley’s Ben Black, Tane Bentley and captain Matt Riley had Hoppers trailing by thirty two points at half time.

From the restart, Hoppers pressed their hosts deep in their own half and within minutes looked to have scored when the forwards lunged for the line but the ball was deemed to have been held up.

Undaunted, the Preston players again attacked the Sedgley 22 and despite a long series of phases which seemed to make little progress, they were awarded a scrum from which they gained a penalty and a line-out on their hosts’ 5m line. The ball was secured and Sam Gale crossed for their only try and their last points of the afternoon as Pearson’s attempt at conversion floated wide of the upright.

Sedgley were quick to react and ran in three more tries, one from Rhys Henderson and two from Full-Back Andy Riley, none of which were converted, leaving the score at the final whistle 50 – 8.

With Head coach Joel Unsworth grounded by Covid, it fell to Dan Orwin to sum up the Preston performance:

‘A lot of our processes are right for a lot of the game, but at the moment we maybe have ten minutes where we’re not quite on it and we get punished.

We knew that these first fixtures against established National League sides would be tough but we also know that our season won’t be defined by these opening games, we just need to stay positive and going through the processes.’