In a game regularly punctuated with mistakes and penalties, Bangor took the lead on two occasions, but fell victim to the successful boot of the Grosvenor out-half who kicked all of Grosvenor’s points to snatch the win by 9 points to Bangor’s 8.
Having suffered two defeats in a row, Bangor were anxious to stop the rot especially as this game was against a side that was a number of places below them in the league. Although still without a number of key players through injury or unavailability, Bangor were still able to field what looked to be a relatively strong side.
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With good playing conditions, home advantage, and a good crowd of supporters the odds seemed to be favouring Bangor. It was therefore encouraging that within 6 minutes of the kick-off, the home team took the lead through the boot of Keith Rossan to lead 3-0. With neither side really stamping their authority on the game, Grosvenor levelled the scores with a successful penalty after 14 minutes, having missed one a shortly beforehand. Bangor should be grateful that while the Grosvenor kicker had good direction, on a number of occasions his kicks fell just short. The game continued with both sides trading penalties, but no change in score. As the first half drew to a close, Bangor were camped on the Grosvenor line, but despite numerous penalties being conceded, the visitor’s defence held out.
The second half started where the first left off, with Bangor pressing forward. A high tackle on Jason Morgan produced a good kicking opportunity, but Rossan’s attempt went wide. Minutes later, one of the Grosvenor props was sin binned for persistent penalty infringements. From the resulting lineout, the Bangor pack rumbled forward, with Ian McBurney eventually managing to get the ball down for a try in the left hand corner. The difficult conversion was missed, but Bangor were now back in the lead by 8-3.
With the extra man advantage, and the score now in Bangor’s favour, the touchline crowd felt that the game should now swing towards the home side. However, too many handling errors and penalty infringements (one of which resulted in Andrew Jackson being yellow carded) handed control back to Grosvenor who took full advantage of their opportunities, converting 2 penalty kicks to take the lead 8-9. With less than 10 minutes left to play, Bangor had a chance to regain the lead through yet another penalty kick, however Rossan’s effort went wide once more.
With the clock running down, Grosvenor played sensible rugby – retaining possession where possible, and kicking for touch inside the Bangor twenty two. As the final whistle blew, the Bangor side were left to run missed opportunities and count the cost of too many mistakes. The only crumb of comfort that Bangor could take from this game was a losing bonus point. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be good enough to put pressure on those teams above them in the league table. With both Enniskillen and Omagh losing today, this was a costly missed opportunity to regain lost ground.
Stepping up to replace the injured Richard Corbett in the second row, Ryan Meeke’s performance earned him the Reeds Rains Man of the Match award, presented by Reeds Rains Regional Director Ryan Andrews. It was also a pleasure to enjoy the company of Ulster stars Craig Gilroy – a former player at Bangor – and Pedrie Wannenburg, who were guests at our corporate lunch event. This occasion was further enhanced by the musical entertainment provided by the Bangor Traditional Music School. This social get together was a huge success and certainly helped to lift what was otherwise a disappointing day.
With only one more game scheduled this year – a Conference League fixture – the hope is that with injured players returning to fitness, and current players rediscovering their form, the New Year will bring better results, both in the Town’s Cup and League competitions.
Bangor team : S Irvine, A Jackson, J Harrison, R Meeke, T Brown, I McBurney, M Coey, R McCausland (C), R Armstrong, K Rossan, D Miller, M Aspley, J Morgan, J Ferguson, C Morgan
Bangor Scores: K Rossan (1P), I McBurney (1T)
