Blues looking for the travelling Ex-factor

Two away games as Blues aim to cap 2017 in style

NEWBURY BLUES have to turn home form into away points as they make the trip to Exmouth on Saturday bidding to maintain the momentum set by last week’s demolition job on South West Premier League high-flyers Newton Abbot.
That win lifted Blues away from the bottom three, but with Saturday’s game and a trip to Lydney to come before the holiday break, the task is to keep buzzing.
Last week’s result was a big lift: “We’ve come floating down to earth with some smiles on faces” said head coach Lee Goodall. “The hardest thing now is to replicate that form away from home.
“The old cliché about defence winning matches was prevalent last week. We defended very, very well and took our
opportunities when we had them. People in the right
positions did their job and did them well.
“But now our sole focus is to do that away from home.”
Exmouth have been stricken by injuries this season after making a good start, and last week came a 64-14 cropper at Dings Crusaders. But they hope to have as many as seven key men back for the Blues visit to the Imperial Ground while it is Blues who have concerns for the trip.
Although the bulk of the team that started last week’s win is sound, flanker Dylan Stewart has suffered a reaction to his broken nose, Ryan Trevaskis has aggravated a hip injury and lock Adam Neal has to yet recovered from a shoulder
problem. Furthermore, hooker Robbie Drysdale sustained an injured neck following a collapsed scrum and Blues will wait to see if he recovers fully.
“We’ve got two away games, but there’s 10 points up for grabs and we’re confident that we can go there and get them. We’ve beaten three of the top five, so there’s no reason why we can’t beat seventh, eighth or ninth.
“We need to carry on and build on the momentum we set last week. It’s that time of year when the tough gigs are just starting to eat away at our squad, so it will be good if we can finish the year with two wins and then we can take a week and half off and sit back, put our feet up and look forward to the second half of the season.”