Preston Grasshoppers 0 Hull Ionians 39: ‘Awful’ performance says Orwin

Head coach Dan Orwin admitted it was “an awful performance”, although Hoppers managed to hold Hull to a single try in the second half.

“We didn’t see that coming,“ he added. “It’s not acceptable to score no points at all at home.” With Storm Darragh lashing Lightfoot Green, Orwin said: “Playing against the wind in the first half, the aim was to minimise the damage.” But Hoppers found themselves 32 points behind by the time they got the advantage of the elements. “We gave them too many tries from missed tackles and there is a lot of reflection for the players to do this week,” the coach warned. “The season’s stalled in the last three games and we’ve got to stop our drop down the table.”

Hoppers made the worst possible start, a knock-on setting Ionians up for the position from which scrum-half Sam Pocklington darted over, with Lewis Minikin converting.

Soon after, impressive No 8 George Mewburn rounded off an impressive run down the wing with an unconverted try – after which it became the Minikin show. The prolific centre scored two first-half tries, converted both and landed two penalties to bring up a shock 32-0 lead at the break.

The hosts had been left trying to stem the tide when prop Mike Ashdown was shown a straight red card by referee George Ounsley for alleged stamping, although Hoppers claimed he was merely trying to free his foot from the clutches of an opponent.

Preston battled valiantly after the half-time inquest and restricted the visitors to a single try, bringing up Minikin’s hat-trick which he inevitably converted for a personal haul of 29 points. They even survived Jacob Browne’s 10 minutes in the sinbin for a high tackle.

But they totally failed to use the gale at their backs in the second half and their one real chance of a score ended in familiar failure when they lost the line-out after a penalty kick to the corner.

The victory allowed Ionians to leapfrog Hoppers to seventh place in National League Two North and, with a trip to Lymm and a visit by Fylde to come before Christmas, they will have to pull out all the stops to prove Orwin’s assertion that any side in Two North is beatable this season.