Coalville lose the first game of 2018

Coalville slipped to their fourth defeat of the season away at Ashbourne on Saturday.All looked good for the Memorial ground side as they opened up a ten point lead after nine minutes with Liam Nelson`s try and Will Keeling with a conversion and a penalty,Ashbourne replied with a penalty.A Matt Chamberlain try after half an hour gave Coalville a 15-3 lead.The hosts then missed a penalty and then had their number 6 red carded for an alleged stamping incident,undeterred by this Ashbourne came straight back with an unconverted try on 34 mins.Another Keeling penalty 2 mins later put Coalville 18-8 to the good,Coalville`s extra man was putting the home side under tremendous pressure but having two tries disallowed after both were originally given certainly gave the crowd something to ponder over during the break.
Ashbourne started the second period with a converted try straight from the kick-off with the Coalville rear guard no where to be seen,18-15.A drop goal from Coalville`s Billy Measures put the visitors 6 points up on 47 mins.Coalville`s defence went AWOL again on 49mins as Ashbourne took the lead with their 3rd try of the game.Coalville pressed for a score for the next 25mins but Ashbourne`s defence held firm and a pass intercept on half way put the hosts in pole position at 21-29.With 2mins left Chamberlain got the visitors a life line with his 2nd try of the match but time ran out with Coalville on the attack. Ben Toft spoke after the game,we should have been out of site at half time, the two disallowed tries kept Ashbourne in this match, that said credit to them for fronting up, by our standards the second half was unacceptable,we didn’t exit,we didn’t execute and didn’t play the pattern, to then gift them two tries we let a comfortable 5 points go begging. We are now out of the top 3 and have some serious work to do,A very disappointing weekend but we will bounce back.