Scarborough claim win on the road at Hullensians

Scarborough charge clear of Hullensians. Picture: Andy Standing.

Injury-hit Hullensians were still reeling from a 52-19 thrashing at Acklam last week and they started in a fashion to blow away memories of that embarrassment.

With Mikey Readman missing from the visitors’ line-up, skipper Matty Jones started the game in the second row with Alessandro Zavatti propping in his place.

This re-shuffle wasn’t a success and the Hullensians pack bossed both line-out and scrum in the opening quarter of the game in which Scarborough failed to get out of their own half.

A further re-shuffle saw Richard Scales effectively joint the fray.

Following a superb defensive performance last it week the Seasiders struggled at times to lay a hand on their opponents in the tackle and it was therefore no surprise when full-back Jonah Steel crossed to open the home side’s account in the 21st minute following a period of sustained pressure.

Stung into action, Scarborough took the game to Hull and made inroads into their territory for the first time in the game and although they were initially repulsed, a slick pass from Jones found Wilson up in support to drive over in the right corner in the 25th minute.

Fly-half Tom Harrison, who is in a fine vein of form, added the extras and followed up with a penalty goal for a 10-5 half-time lead.

The Seasiders had several chances to extend their lead early in the second-half but failed to breach a solid home defence and from there a ding-dong, end to end battle ensued.

The Humbersiders reduced the lead to 10-8 with a 65th minute penalty and the game could then have gone either way.

With time running a mistake by either side would have cost them the game. It looked as if wing Matty Young had scored the clinching try for the visitors in the 80th minute only to be judged to have had a foot in touch.

However, a similar move in the same corner two minutes later saw scrum-half Jordan Wakeham, who had left the field apparently seriously injured minutes before only to return, release flanker Ben Martin, who sprinted over to touchdown and win the match.

Harrison shaved the post with his conversion attempt but he’d already made a massive contribution to his side’s winning efforts.