Stand Out Performance From Steer Puts Chapel In The Clear

Holmes Chapel welcomed Aldwinians to Station Road for this weekend’s encounter. Chapel knew this was going to be a difficult test given the visitors form so far this season. It was clear however that the lads were well up for this one! With the oranges chopped and Eminem (Avril Lavigne) pumping in the changing rooms the lads headed out on to the field.
Aldwinians took the kick and fired it high in to the midfield. This was caught on the full by a charging David Steer who ran straight through the oncoming defensive line – this then led to the ball ending up in the opposition 22 and very nearly resulting in a score. This was to set to the tone for not only the team but the start of a great individual performance from Dave.
The pressure from Chapel was relentless from the start however, due to an error within the midfield the ball was spilled allowing an Aldwinian’s player to pick up the ball and crash through a few tackles for the first score of the game. Although now 7-0 down – this didn’t reflect how the match had gone so far – so the boys were still extremely positive. They just needed to calm down and go back to their structure in order to cut out the unforced errors.
After some sustained pressure and slightly more structure Chapel were able to force the ball over the line in the far corner after a well worked maul off a line out. Tom Chambers topping off a well worked move. (7-7).
All square at half time.
It was at half time that the pivotal piece of information was delivered. The shrinking violet Stewart Butters managed to squeeze a couple of words in. Using his wealth of experience (from the Army or somewhere I believe) he suggested we ran a lot harder, crash balls through the forwards to try and tie them in more before firing out to the backs. This little piece of advice instantly changed the course of the game.
Right from the kick Chapel ran the ball in hard, phase after phase, before Nic Clawson drove the ball home in the corner. This was the quickest Nic had ran since Dom Moss chased him with a full time first team contract.
Throughout the second half the discipline of the Aldwinians side continued to deteriorate – Stewart Butters managed to make sure they were suitably punished on every occasion, leading to the final score 21-7.
Chapel showed some real character in this performance. They were able to sustain everything Aldwinians threw at them second half. Not least David Steer who capped off a top performance by picking up and driving back one of the biggest opposition forwards around 15-20 metres back to where he came from. For all his efforts Dave was rewarded with a broken snout after running into his team mate Luke Blagbrough. At least with his wonky nose he can always remember this man of the match performance.