Keswick U14s travelled to local rivals Aspatria for a friendly match on Sunday, their first match for 6 or so weeks due to the festive period and inclement weather. Availability midweek was excellent but sadly illness and injuries hit the squad over the days leading up to the match meaning only 14 boys were able to travel through. This meant a number of the lads were playing out of position and substitutes would be limited having agreed to play a 13 a side match.

As for all our teams training has been a challenge due to the pitches but the lads turned up ready and raring to go. Aspatria are one of the strongest squads in the county at this age group and are flying high in the County Cup League table. Undaunted the lads started brightly, kicking cleverly for territory and putting pressure on the Aspatria team. Customary strong tackling and effort from the team led to a very even start, sadly Aspatria managed to pick a few holes and scored a few tries mainly on the outside. Heads didn’t drop though and the final 10 minutes of the half saw Keswick notch up three tries of their own through good pressure and excellent finishing.

Half time saw the group gather themselves to push on for the second half which started off as a very even affair, both teams carrying hard and defending well. As the half went on Aspatria’s much larger squad and hence number of substitutes meant they were able to rotate keeping their strong players fresh. Keswick sadly picked up bumps and an injury which meant no subs for the final 15 minutes or so. The pressure and line speed of the Aspatria team told during this time and they managed to run some more tries in to sadly comfortably win the match.

Even though the result didn’t go their way the coaches were incredibly proud of the spirit and cohesion the team showed throughout. The defensive effort was outstanding, huge efforts across the pitch with some typical bone crunching efforts. Defensive rucks were very strong with the ball well protected and in attack the lads starting to communicate which opposition rucks to leave and which to compete for. The scrum was again strong including shoving Aspatria back off their own ball for one against the head. Personally I was particularly proud that the team kept their heads in the face of a fair amount of provocative behaviour from some of the Aspatria players, the referee having to penalise a number of episodes of personal foul play. Our boys only gave away a single penalty all match, an excellent demonstration of playing the game physically but within the rules.

As always there were areas to develop but the effort and commitment was there from start to finish, a tough match against a talented opposition. I’m very proud of all the lads but a special shout out to Hugh, FOTM in his first match, got stuck in and looked part of the furniture and Thomas, BOTM who finished his tries brilliantly.

We dust ourselves off and are looking forward to returning to County Cup action against Carlisle next week.