Newbury Blues 3 Cinderford 0

BLUES emerged from the misery of a dire first half to claim the satisfaction of a job well-done as they recorded their third straight win to move into the top six in National League One.
Three points they won, and three more sin-binnings they accumulated, all in that opening 40 minutes, which threatened to be the prelude to disaster after the break.
But if Blues had utterly failed to take advantage of the powerful wind at their backs in that period, they rallied to make Cinderford look much worse in the second with a resilient defensive display that might have been capped by a score or two at the end.
It was one score that proved to be enough, although that should not have been the case as Blues had the chances to sweep down field before the break. But some woeful kicking away of possession, some sloppy lineout work and a few controversial decisions from referee Phil Davies hardly helped their cause.
Cinderford ‘won’ the first off-the-ball ruck before Phil Greenaway missed the first scoring chance when his penalty into the wind sailed well wide.
Ed Jackson went for a chip through, but it was wlel beyond the chasing Matt Williams before Blues snatched the lead with Waylon Gasson’s 15th minute penalty, which should have been the springboard for something more.
Instead, Gasson was promptly sin-binned after retaliating to a head-butt to colleague Scott Witcomb, and winger Martin Freeman soon followed suit after making a good tackle on the breaking Danny Pointon and then being picked out of the crowd in the scrappy aftermath.
The 13 men survived comfortably enough until Gasson’s return, only for Danny Hodge to see another flash of yellow after he had lashed out.
Blues failed to mount a worthwhile attack in 20 minutes until a forward pass and another wayward Jackson kick left them defending what looked like the indefensible, but the second half display was as united as the first was disjointed.
Cinderford produced little as Newbury’s pack twice drove them back out of the danger in the opening stages, and Blues went closest to scoring when Mitch Burton arrowed a kick out right, but just out of Matt Williams’ hands.
Brett Turner had Cinderford’s only penalty chance with 15 minutes to go, but was too wide to make it count. And after being driven back 40 yards by a couple of concerted shoves, it was the Forest of Dean side that ended the game defending desperately as Williams and Jack Bentall almost squeezed over, only to be thwarted by knock-ons close to the line.
Had the pressure been at the other end, it would have been more nail-biting, but three points were more than enough in the reckoning that mattered.
Newbury Blues: M. Williams; Coxon-Smith, Perry, Katz, Freeman; Burton, Gasson; Rowland, Prosser, McGrath; Hodge, Ascroft-Leigh; Witcomb, Bentall, Jackson. Subs: Oliver, Green, Pape, Perkins, Avery.
Cinderford: Turner; Haile, Boston, Scourfield, D. Knight; Greenaway, Pointon; Smart, Duncan, Deacon; Bufton, Jones; Panoho, McNeil, Evans. Subs: Fortey, Hall, Nicholls, Wilcox, Plummer.