Bangor survive Halloween frightener against Carrick
In perfect playing conditions, Bangor dominated the forward play and enjoyed most of the possession. However, the score see-sawed nervously between the teams, before the home side finally came through as winners by 28-17.
Halloween is a time for frights and fireworks, and so it was at Upritchard Park when Bangor resumed their league campaign against Carrick. Although a number of familiar faces were missing from the starting line-up, Bangor fielded a strong team that was anxious to put their poor Junior Cup performance against Dungannon behind them. By contrast, Carrick were on a roll with some good results in both the league and cup.
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As Bangor kicked off into a slight headwind, it was obvious that neither side wanted to make any early mistakes, resulting in a rather scrappy start. Carrick were fully aware of their wind advantage and started putting kicks deep into the Bangor twenty two. However, this didn’t always go to plan as, with 8 minutes on the clock, the ball carried too far and was safely touched down by Bangor. From the resulting drop-out, Bangor recovered the ball then passed it inside to Jason Morgan. Having made one of his characteristic line breaks, Morgan passed wide to Nick Hatton who then passed back inside to Chris Morgan. This quick move completely split the Carrick defence and Chris had an easy run in to score under the posts. With Keith Rossan’s conversion, Bangor had got off to a flying start by 7-0.
This is what the home supporters have seen on a number of occasions, and hopes were therefore high that Bangor would now build on this. However, in their efforts to do just that, Bangor were guilty of trying to force the game and suffered a number of handling errors during some good attacking moves. Carrick’s continued to punt the ball into Bangor’s territory and were eventually rewarded with a scrum in Bangor’s twenty two. The early signs were that Bangor’s scrum had the upper hand. However on this occasion, as the Carrick scrum half delayed the put-in, Bangor were penalised for an early push and, from the quickly taken free kick, Carrick saw a gap in the Bangor defence and nipped in to score under the posts. The simple conversion levelled the scores at 7-7.
The score remained like this for most of the first half – although Bangor had opportunities to score, they were spoiled by poor passing and handling. The frustration of not taking their chances was compounded when they gave away a penalty for a high tackle. Carrick took the kick and moved into the lead by 7-10.
With just 2 minutes of the half remaining, Bangor finally produced their second well worked try. The move was started by a strong run by Chris Schofield before off-loading to Chris Morgan. A well-timed pass released Jason Morgan who shrugged off the defender’s tackle to score to the left of the posts. Rossan added the extras to put Bangor back in front by 14-10.
As the referee blew for half time shortly afterwards, both the Bangor players and supporters would have been relieved that the scoreline was once more in their favour, especially given their dominance in this period. With the wind behind them in the second half, the hope was that they would at last put the game beyond Carrick’s reach.
How wrong can you be! Within 2 minutes of the restart, Carrick intercepted a poor Bangor pass in the middle of the pitch and ran unhindered to score a gifted try under the posts. With the successful conversion, Carrick were once more ahead by 14-17.
Despite yet more handling errors by the home side, they still managed to press forward and put Carrick under pressure. The Carrick defence was sound, but after 14 minutes were eventually forced to concede a penalty in front of their own posts. Given the total domination of the Bangor scrum, there were a few raised eyebrows when Bangor opted to take the kick for 3 points as opposed for going for the scrum and the possibility of 5 or more points. Nonetheless, Rossan’s kick went over, levelling the scores at 17-17.
As Bangor continued to apply pressure, they suffered an unexpected set-back when Jason Morgan was judged to have high-tackled a Carrick player. Despite pleading his innocence for what looked like a harsh decision, Morgan was yellow-carded and would spend the next 10 minutes on the sidelines.
While Carrick may have sensed an opportunity with the extra man advantage, the re-shuffled Bangor line-up was determined to prove a point – 6 points as it turned out. First they were awarded a penalty for an off-side infringement by Carrick, which Rossan successfully kicked. Then, just a few minutes later the Bangor scrum played its part again. From a Carrick put-in, Bangor successfully wheeled the scrum and won the put-in for themselves. From this secure set piece, the ball came to Rossan – now playing in the out-half position – who expertly produced a drop goal from the right hand side.
With the score now 23-17 in Bangor’s favour, and Morgan back in play, Bangor sensed the game was finally swinging in their favour. The forwards’ strength in attack forced Carrick to concede a penalty just 5 metres from their own line. Bangor kicked for touch, setting up an attacking line-out. A clean take by Darren Lyttle developed into a well controlled drive by the supporting pack, finally resulting in a push-over score by Andrew Jackson. Although the conversion attempt was wide, Bangor’s lead had moved on to 28-17, and with only a few minutes left to play, Carrick were resigned to defeat, although hoping to salvage a losing bonus point. This was not to be, however, as Bangor successfully closed out the remainder of the game to maintain their unbeaten league run. Curtis Stewart was named Bangor’s Man of the Match for his consistently good work at the back of the scrum.
Bangor can be happy for a win against tough opposition such as Carrick. However, it was obvious that had the error count been lower, the margin of victory could have been much more. No doubt this will be noted and actioned before the next testing encounter next Saturday, away to Enniskillen.
Bangor team: J Harrison, A Jackson, C Schofield, D Lyttle, R Meeke, J Clegg (c), N Hatton, C Stewart, M Leebody, J Morgan, K Rossan, C Morgan, M Aspley, C Morgan, D Miller, D Charles
Bangor Scores: C Morgan (1T), J Morgan (1T), A Jackson (1T),K Rossan (2P, 2C, 1DG)
