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STOUBRIDGE made the arduous journey to Blaydon only to come away empty handed as their promotion push hit a stumbling block.

The visitors were trailing by 14 points in the same number of minutes when number eight, Smithson started the scoring after only four minutes. It was clear that Blaydon were going to use their powerful pack to punch holes in Stour's defence and the try came after some good interplay between forwards and backs. Kyle converted and was successful, eight minutes later when an attack down the centre gave Nick Gandy a try under the posts.Ally Bressington reduced the gap to 11 points with a well struck penalty and this seemed to galvanise Stour into more positive action. Through some good pick and drive moves they put intense pressure on the home side's try line and when the ball was eventually released a clever kick by Sam Robinson saw the tall and still evergreen Marcus Cook gather a high bounce and score between the posts. Bressington's kick made the score a respectable 14-10.

More pressure was rewarded by a super individual effort by Sam Robinson who jinked past two defenders and touched down with 25 minutes of the game gone. Bressington's conversion ensured a 17-14 lead. However, the game was typified when Blaydon upped the pressure and the Premiership skills and power of their six Newcastle Falcons loanees enabled them to make 30 and 50 metre breaks as tackles were shrugged off. A strong run was held up, over the line, but the pressure was too much and Andrew Fenby scored out left. Kyle's conversion attempt was miss-hit and the score remained at 19-17 until the half time whistle. This was in spite of a marvellous piece of individual running by Adam Billig who beat several opponents and ran a full 40 metres. Desperate tackling, just short of the line caused a difficult ball to be popped out to Tom Jarvis, in close support, but a knock on doused the visiting supporters hopes.

Stour kicked off the second half, playing against a tricky slope and six minutes later the score increased after Stour lost a scrummage close to their own line.

Gandy scored the inevitable try and Kyle converted to give Blaydon a 26-17 lead. There were some good passages of play which saw Stour threaten the home side's line but to no avail. Twice, Blaydon were reduced to 14-men as Blaydon were penalised for persistent infringements at the base of rucks but even this did not benefit a Stour side that were reinforced when Scott Witcomb came on for an injured Ben Hughes. Adam Sturdy was replaced by Chris Rowlands, Adrian Olver for James Tideswell and Rod Petty replaced the full back when Tom Jarvis slotted in to a substituted Marcus Cook. Bressington managed a penalty attempt to give Stour hope of a losing bonus point and the scoreboard finally changed to 26-20 after a "dry spell" of about 25 minutes.

The defeat ends a seven game unbeaten run for Stour but with Manchester losing heavily at Otley, can take heart in an unchanged league position of second place.

3:26pm Thursday 21st February 2008

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