North Premier Prediction League -Week 11 fixtures

Blackburn v Wirral 1-4 -10
Carlisle v Rossendale 4-1 -10
Harrogate v Lymm 5-0 +10
Ilkley v Morpeth 4-1 +10
Kirkby L v Blaydon 0-5 BANKER +10
Macclesfield vs Billingham 5-2 -10
Sandal vs Alnwick 5-0 +10

Taking a shot on Macc giving Billingham their first loss

Blackburn 1-4 Wirral.        -10
Carlisle. 5-0 Rossendale. +10
Harrogate 5-0 Lymm.        +10. Banker
Ilkley 1-4 Morpeth.              -10
K Lons 0-5 Blaydon.            -10
Macclesfield 0-5 Billingham +10
Sandal 5-0 Alnwick.              + 10

BILLINGHAM MAKE IT ELEVEN FROM ELEVEN!!
BY MIKE BROWN
1 HOUR AGO
SHARE
Share via
Facebook
Twitter
https://www.billinghamrugby.co
COPY
#wecontinuetobuild
Billingham make it 11 from 11 as their first visit to Priory Park to play Macclesfield ends in a great away victory.


Peter Evans got the game under way and Macclesfield kept hold of the ball well going through phase after phase only to be met by stern Billingham defence which would be the pattern for most of the 1st half.

The first points arrived courtesy of a line out steal and Billingham moving the ball quickly to catch the Macclesfield defence napping with, you guessed it, the man’s on fire Matthew Kirby scoring under the posts, Peter added the extras which silenced the home crowd.

Macclesfield restarted and again piled on the pressure and Billingham’s defence had to hold firm and a penalty awarded to Billingham gave them the opportunity to get the ball into the Macclesfield half, the line out was won and a well worked backs move resulted in Luke Wilson scoring a try under the posts and Peter adding the extras.

Macclesfield restarted and straight away they piled the pressure back on and the power of the Macclesfield scrum started to show with ‘Sir’ deeming that Billingham were in the wrong and consecutive penalty’s and a final warning meant Billingham were defending on their line. Strangely, when ‘Sir’ swapped sides at scrum time, the scrums were fine. Macclesfield were having all the ball, they were recycling the ball quickly and Bill’s defence was struggling to contain them, another scrum and ‘Sir’ moving back to the other side resulted in a penalty try being awarded and a yellow card been shown to Kieran Clark. Bill, down to 14 men, showed real character to go back at Macclesfield and they started testing their defence, at this point the bar was calling and I missed the Peter Evans drop goal to make it 7-17 and that’s how the score stayed going into half time.

Macclesfield kicked off and again straight away piled the pressure on, determined to get back into the game but Billingham were ready for the reaction and with great game management shown by Peter Evans to keep turning Macclesfield’s large forwards back and putting Macclesfield in positions that they never looked like scoring from. Ill discipline gave Macclesfield an out and they took full advantage by recycling the ball quickly to score under the posts and adding the extras made it 14-17 and the home crowd started to believe another come back was on the cards as per previous weeks. Billingham’s spirit started to show through and some good interplay between forwards and backs finally lead to Martin Hopley going over in the corner to make it 14-22, conversion missed.

Yet again Macclesfield came back showing what a good team they are and how they were desperate to keep their home record intact. Macclesfield were awarded a penalty for a high tackle which resulted in another yellow card for the Ryan Kirkbride, which looked very harsh. Macclesfield took the 3 points on offer to move into losing bonus point territory and they started to try and get more but Billingham’s defence was as mean as ever and with the ref’s whistle blown for full time it was time to celebrate a good away performance against a team we had never played before.

Special thank you to all at Macclesfield for the hospitality shown and we look forward to welcoming you at Greenwood Road next year.

Mom - Nathan Myers

#OSIOS