Walcountian Blues 8:10 Bath

After a hard fought win against Reading last week, Bath were faced with their second longest road trip to another of those 'must win' games. The bottom half of the Premiership is tight, with 2 points separating 5 teams. Walcountian Blues like all the teams in the South are much stronger at home, and the earlier win in Bath could not be an indication of the likely result.The game had so many good things to talk about, firstly it was in good spirit, highlighted by the continual banter between the opposing LDOs, the make up of both teams is similar, with a big mix of age and youth, and at Face Ken Murray and Amit Bizwas are very evenly matched, in fact it was the performance of 'back up' face man Phil Thomas who stole the show in that department for Bath. Bath fielded a 15 yrs old in attack (16 next week) in the form of Pat Peacock, despite his nerves at first Pat put in a great performance, making plenty of good cuts, he scored a goal and could have had a second (left handed) and any thought of just coming along to make up numbers were misinformed as he spent some 70 minutes on the field coming back into defence a couple of times as well (it also brought the average age of the bath attack down to 33).Man of the match, and Mr 'I'm playing out of my skin' is Doug Mackay, another outstanding performance saw him leap up the scorers table with a haul of 5 goals and an assist, numerous clearing runs and some brilliant defensive work, especially against the Blues main American Attack man, stripping him of the ball several times.In Goal Nige Gates, who 7 hours before had been in America (off the plane and around the M25) made two cracking one on one saves which were crucial in a very tight game.The game hinged on which team exploited the cross field slope the best, which in one on one situations favoured the attacker, both teams used it well, but Baths defence of Sam White, Paul Bown,Mike Brand and any combination of midfielders coped the better. Up front the Attack rode well, and backed up a great display by the midfield, who are exchanging with long stick Matt Grody at the right times, adding pressure to the opposition.Lastly the presence of three qualified officials makes a hell of a difference, less tension from bad calls (there are always some) and generally the game improves because of it.Quotes of the day:'Take him he's wearing purple gloves' Blues LDO to his attack on Mike Brand'I didn't see my goal, was it a good one?' Pat Peacock after scoring his first ever league goal.'If you do they'll be F****** ugly' Mark Pinnick to Nik Roberts after an offer by Roberts to have Mackays babies after the fifth goal.