Sat 11 Sep 2021, 15:00
Newbold travelled up to Stoke on Trent to what has been in past seasons an unhappy hunting ground and sadly it still proved to be writes Phil Fereday.
The Newbold team sheet showing six changers from the previous week manly due to injuries but on the positive side they give a debut to scrum half Kieran Walden who had an outstanding game.
The Home side playing with the wind at their back put the first points on the scoreboard after 10 mins of play with a well taken penalty but Newbold quickly responded with a penalty from Ethan Wookey 3-3 .More success was to follow after gaining possession from the restart and making ground down the wing a quickly taken line out caught Stoke napping to enable Lee Lightowler to run in under the post unopposed to score a try converted by Ethan Wookey 3-10 .The game settled down with both sides having attacks that were well defended until Stoke made a line break to score an unconverted try in the corner 8-10. This was followed by another unconverted try soon after following a well worked move by Stoke 13-10. This did not deter Newbold and after some strong ball carrying between forwards and backs once again Stoke conceded a penalty that was kicked by Ethan Wookey 13-13. On the stroke of halftime Stoke scored a converted try after a penalty was awarded to them that reduced Newbold down to 14 men with a yellow card being shown 20-13. In the 8 mins of injury time played once again the home side scored a converted try making the score line 27-13 when the half time whistle finally blew.
The second half started and for a long period Newbold kept possession but could not break down the home defence frustratingly missing some chances but finally after a well-positioned cross field kick / pass from Josh Cooke was collected by Jamie Mapletoft to score an unconverted try in the corner 27-18. Newbold desperately threw everything into attack seeking a further score only to see Stoke from a breakdown gather the ball to run in a final unconverted try of the game 32-18.
