A sluggish start enabled the visitors to get ahead start with a try on 5 minutes. Fleetwood withstood further pressure as Caldy tried to capitalise on a strong wind behind them. Staunch defending from Danny Maher, Adam Dawson and Henry Turner prevented a further score. Fleet’ began to find their rhythm and half back combination of Tom Evans and Joel Reynolds was working particularly well as quality ball was regularly getting out to flying centres Tom Speed and Kris Phillips. From a ruck on the Caldy 10m line, Tom Evans fed to Maher who quickly passed out to winger Jamie Railton for him to score in the right hand corner. Again Fleetwood were called upon to defend as the visitors continued to press. Captain James Cameron, and fellow forwards James Evans and Tom Hird impressing with some quality tackles. Unfortunately for Fleet’ the line was breached just before halftime and minutes later a penalty was converted to make the halftime score 5-15.
A couple of changes were made to inject some fresh legs and 2nd rower Ben Ruddlesdin certainly made his presence felt from the restart with some crunching hits. It was now Fleetwood’s turn to use the wind to their advantage and the home side pulled back to 8-15 when Tom Evans converted a penalty. The high ball was now putting Caldy under pressure and when one of their backs was caught in possession after taking a catch they were duly punished as Prop Jack Foden picked up from the base of the ensuing ruck on the 5m line to score near the posts. Evans converted. Man of the Match Cameron implored his troops to keep the pressure on. The team duly obliged as a solid ruck allowed Evans to feed Reynolds as he ran an excellent line straight through a gap in the defence to score. Evans converted to make the score 22-15 with less than 10 minutes to go. Caldy seemed to spring into life and with a rare second half foray into Fleetwood’s half, managed to score after a period of sustained pressure. The conversion crept over from a difficult angle and this entertaining match ended 22-22.
Fleetwood Squad: Bedford, Birks, Cameron, Cleary, Cowie, Dawson, J Evans, T Evans, Hird, Foden, Maher, Morgan, Phillips, Railton, Reynolds, Riley, Ruddlesdin, Speed, Turner, Walters, Webster, White.
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