Late cry-offs due to illness saw Lewis Brooks and Kelvin Browne drop out and gave recalls to Craig Dutton at centre and Jon Parkinson on the bench for Burton prior to them facing county rivals Longton in this National 3 Midlands battle. However, none of these were the reason for gifting the visitors their first nine points as Burton all too often fell foul of the referee’s whistle and conceded three early penalty goals. This early upset did little to help Burton’s cause, but did appear to mark the start of a flow of crude and offensive comments from a section of opposition followers that continued throughout the game. Fortunately, while being very upsetting and obnoxious to other supporters, it did not carried over onto the field and the game was played as a hard but good spirited contest throughout.

Burton started the game with a good long kick-off and both sides exchanged kicks before Longton ran the ball back and Burton conceded the first of those three penalties. The restart saw Ian Gilmour tackle an opposition flanker into touch on the Burton twenty-two and a knock-on in the lineout saw Longton opt for a scrum as they continued to pressure the Burton line. But this time it was Ben Grocott who tackled the flanker to the ground only for the second penalty goal to be given away at the ruck.

Six points down and just five minutes played Burton began to rally and good forward bursts by Craig Dutton, Joel Booth and Dave Fitchett took the ball into opposition territory and Luke Peach bounced his kick into touch just inside the visitor’s twenty-two. Another penalty against Burton allowed the opposition to clear the danger back to halfway where Fitchett caught the ball and drove forward again. Bt surprise, surprise the ruck resulted in another penalty and this time Longton chose to kick for goal to increase their lead to 9-0 after just twelve minutes play.

From the restart some poor passing by Longton saw Dave Archer kick the ball on only for it to bounce over the dead ball line as he chased after it. The dropout at last saw Burton be given a penalty and a quick tap by Dutton saw him burst forward with Peach, Booth and Dan Clarke in support. But the ball was dropped and as with ever play Burton tried to make the move ended with a penalty being conceded and Longton cleared the threat. Archer and Gilmour made forty metres down the touchline before the latter kicked ahead and Longton scrambled the ball into touch for a Burton lineout inside the opposition twenty-two. Burton lost the lineout and Longton ran the ball out of defence for their winger to run through some poor home defending before scoring wide out to take the score to 14-0 with only a quarter of the game played.

Longton kept trying to run the ball but good solid defence by Dutton, Peach, Grocott, Fitchett, Jon Evans and Lawrence Betty made sure that their progress was always halted. Seeing that this tactic was getting nowhere Longton decided to kick high and deep, but this led to their winger being sin binned for tackling Archer in mid air as he caught the ball. With the man advantage Burton began to press forward and from a ruck in midfield Rob Wakelin was quickly on the scrumhalf and very nearly raced clear but his out-stretched hands just couldn’t grasp the ball when the line beckoned. Then a great tackle by Dutton saw Longton lose the ball as they tried to run out of defence. Gilmour scooped up the ball to chip ahead, Booth gathered to burst forward and get within five metres of the line before being stopped. Longton kicked the ball clear to the waiting arms of Archer who set off on a twisting run before passing to Jon Crisp, but the pass was judged to be forward so ending another Burton move. Some great defending by Dutton, Betty, Peach and Jon Edwards stopped a Longton attack and gave Burton a penalty. Dutton’s quick tap saw him take play to halfway for a home scrum. This was following by some more good inter-passing play by Peach, Dutton, Clarke, Evans and Booth that took Burton forward and won another penalty for Peach to put the ball deep into the opposition twenty-two. The throw went over the lineout but was retrieved by Grocott and Fitchett only for Longton to regain it and kick out of defence. Crisp took the kick and linked with Gilmour who cleverly put in a liitle chip that he gathered himself to feed Clarke. He made ground before passing to Archer who raced towards the line and when confronted by a defender he found Dutton outside in support, but as he took the ball and dived for the corner he was just edged into touch. Boosted by this Burton kept up the pressure and a Burton scrum on the visitor’s twenty-two saw Booth pick-up and charge forward supported by Wakelin, Edwards and James Litchfield. Longton yielded under the pressure and were forced to concede a penalty that Archer kicked between the uprights to take the score to 3-14 at the break.

Longton’s kick-off for the second-half was superbly taken by Booth and with Will Brooks and Edwards on his shoulder he powered forward closely supported by Wakelin, Litchfield and Clarke to win a Burton scrum just on the opposition ten-metre line. Burton won the ball and Booth broke blind to feed Evans, who raced thirty-five metres towards the line only to be tackled three metres short as he tried to dummy inside the full back with Archer clear outside. Longton cleared to their twenty-two but Burton continued to attack with surging drives by Litchfield, Fitchett and Grocott, but eventually another penalty decision against Burton saw Longton clear to halfway.

A passage of frantic play followed as both sides tried to set up attacks but Burton’s defence held firm and Peach managed to kick clear to the opposition ten-metre line. Burton bought on fresh legs with James Hamilton and Harry Titley replacing Litchfield and Crisp respectively and both these new players were soon in action as first Hamilton charged forward supported by Booth, Wakelin and Clarke to make twenty good hard metres. But the ball was lost and Titley took the clearance to race thirty-metres down his touchline before passing to Gilmour. He started a move that involved Peach, Dutton and Betty before Evans released Archer to streak down the line and touchdown near the posts. He picked the ball up to tee it up and bisect the uprights to add the extra points for himself.

Now only trailing 14-10 with twenty minutes to play Burton had it all to do and with a penalty at the restart giving Longton an immediate chance to bounce back it was fortunate that their kicker missed. Archer’s restart put the ball deep into opposition territory and with the catchers undecided as to who was going to gather Burton’s Fitchett, Edwards and Grocott were quickly up to win a Burton scrum just on the visitor’s twenty-two. As Burton attacked Peach’s kick ahead unfortunately hit an out-stretched Longton leg and bounce back downfield towards the Burton line. Longton won the chase for the ball and spun it out wide for their winger to dive over in the corner to put the score at 10-19.

A great run by Titley from the drop-out saw him set Burton on another attack and again Longton were forced to give away a penalty that Archer took great delight in putting the ball over the bar to cut Longton’s lead to just six points at 13-19.

But act one of a tragedy was about to follow as Longton kick-off went high and long to inside the Burton twenty-two and bounced into touch. Burton called a five man lineout, Longton played with seven, and a poor throw saw Longton’s scrumhalf take a pass to run down the five-metre channel for a dubious try.

Act two began as Gilmour charged down a Longton kick on halfway the ball went into touch for a Longton lineout. They won the ball and kicked deep and with four or five Burton players watching along with the referee believing the ball had struck the line and so gone directly into touch for a scrum back on halfway. But the touch flag, held by Longton’s touchjudge, remained down and the opposition winger played on and touched down for the final try that was converted.

While some would argue that Burton should take some of the blame for themselves for not playing to the whistle it could be also argued that laws are laws and should be followed. But either way these last two tries just succeeded in making the final score a very flattering one to the victors Longton.
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