Blues make it two in a row

But it's a hard slog to see off battling Lydney

Newbury Blues 23 Lydney 7
BLUES made it two out of two in the South West Premier League, but they made hard work of seeing off a limited, but defiant Lydney side.
It was 37 minutes before the visitors got into Blues territory, and they could have gone into the break leading until the made a hash and coughed up possesion.
That was Blues problem as they dominated the first period, created chance after chance but got practically nothing.
“I watched the first 20 minutes,” said head coach Lee Goodall, “and we got the ball, then coughed it up, made a mistake, coughed it up, then made a mistake, then we gave three penalties away, a skewed kick and then it’s 8-7. and I thought ‘hang on, where are we going from here?”
Where it was amounted to sorting it out, but without a bonus point that should have been wrapped up in that opening quarter.
Blues got to well within five metres five times in that spell, but only Richie West’s 15th minute penalty to their credit until Joe Pigott darted over after 31 minutes when Lydney were down to 14 men following the sin-binning of flanker Toby Patrick.
But Lydney’s first spell without pressure saw winger Kingsley Bower snap up Ollie Locke’s kick to hammer his way through a series of half tackles for a superb solo score converted by Locke, and Lydney had a free run that could easily have yielded a simple penalty chance before they blew it just before the break.
Blues eased worries by scoring four minutes after the re-start through winger Toby Pearce with West adding the extras,and the fly half slotted over a penalty, although the game was 73 minutes old before prop James Macauley fought his way over the line for a final try that at least left Blues with their first home win in the division.
Newbury Blues: T. Thorne; Pearce, D. Thorne, Love, Futcher; West, Pigott; Hicks, Drysdale, Macauley; Doel, Winfield; Walsh, D. Stewart, Jones. Subs: Cotrrell, Bastable, Segre.
Lydney: Lakabuka; Haile, Sargent, Dunn, Bower; Locke, Williams; Lane, Ford, Ncube; Southon, Bennett; Brown, Patrick, Overthrow. Subs: Tipley, Thompson, Arnott.