Fergie Time!

Silhillians travelled to North Shropshire last Saturday for a Midlands 1 (West) fixture against 3rd placed Whitchurch. They came away with a losing bonus point when in reality they were seconds away from claiming four points and if the Whitchurch No.10 had bough his kicking boots with him the should have had nothing!

In a game that saw 3 yellow cards, four simple kicks missed and 13 minutes of injury time Silhillians can consider themselves extremely unlucky.

The first period was evenly matched with neither side gaining the upper hand. It wasn’t until Sils lost hooker Lee Jones to the sin bin on 18mins that Whitchurch managed to break the deadlock. Their 7-0 lead thanks to a converted try on 23 minutes was reduced 3 mins later by a Steve Hawkins penalty. A further penalty for Whitchurch game them a narrow 10-3 lead at half time.

Silhillians started the second period much the stronger and within 7 mins of the restart had further reduced the deficit to 10-6 thanks to a second Hawkins penalty.

With confidence growing and the Sils faithful in good voice Hawkins reduced the Whitchurch lead 5 mins later to a single point with another pinpoint accurate kick.

This appeared to be the turning point. Wave after wave of Silhillians attack was met initially buy a well drilled Whitchurch rear guard. Eventually the home side discipline deserted them and a yellow card saw them reduced to 14 players. Silhillians made their numbers count and created an overlap on the left wing which allowed Dan Kelly to cross in the corner…only for the referee to pull play back, yellow card another Whitchurch player and award Silhillians a penalty!

On 78 minutes Sils finally got their reward. Whitchurch were penalized infront of their own posts for holding on and the reliable boot of Hawkins gave Silhillians the lead for the first time in the game. 10-12.

With a minute left Sils just needed to run the clock down and claim the win. Unfortunately the 13 minutes of injury time proved just too much. From a scrum on half way Whitchurch produced the games only free flowing move allowing the right wing to touchdown in the corner. The added conversion gave them a 17-12 win.
After the game the Whitchurch players and supporters were clearly embarrassed at the manner of their victory.
Silhillians must pick themselves up and reflect on a great second half performance. Young props Malachai Jones and Matt Bacon were superb and look great prospects for the future.