Weston were made to pay for poor decision making and ill discipline at Old Reds.

OLD REDS 19 pts

WESTON 14 pts

HOW Weston were not at least 20 points up at half-time will probably be the defining moment of this relegation fight season.

This game was symptomatic of the whole season, with Weston on top for long periods, but not making the most of their opportunities through poor decision making and ill discipline at vital points in the match.

Weston came out firing and two catch and drives led to pressure on the home line. The forwards have their tails up and hooker Mike Hocking touched down, converted by fly-half Glen Dickson. Five minutes later, Dickson cut a great line to put inside centre Ollie Snook under the sticks for another converted try.

The visitors had the upper hand and Old Reds gave away five penalties in their own half, but Weston kicked to the corner rather than accumulating points from the accurate kicking of Dickson.

Weston allowed Reds back into the game by giving away two sloppy penalties mid-half. Shortly after the second of these, Snook was once again put in by Dickson, which was somewhat harshly disallowed by the referee for being a forward pass.

Weston again put pressure on the home side, but the Reds’ defence held and on the stroke of half-time, Weston having been in control of the game, gave away a needless penalty to put the home side within five points at the interval.

The second half was a sloppy affair with both sides guilty of errors. Reds applied more pressure, but the Weston line held. The hosts cut the lead to two points with a penalty midway through the half and then with four minutes to go, Weston were penalised for a crooked feed to compound the 10-2 penalty count in the second half.

From the resulting verbals, Weston were marched back 10 metres and the hosts gleefully scored from the resultant quick tap.

On the plus side, the return of Kirk Middlemiss was welcome, as he had a tremendous game, both in attack and defence. Prop Ollie Streeter also returned and played his part.

If Weston can cut out the needless penalties and make better decisions on the pitch, then victories for the rest of the season are definitely there.