Purley 6:12 Bath

It's been a long time since Bath recorded a win over Purley, 11 successive defeats since the last win on 7th Feb 1998, last century to be exact, Purley appear with alarming regularity in the biggest scores against tables, in fact out of 32 First Team games Bath have won only 10 including this one and the they have scored 458 goals to Baths 263, a margin of 195, basically this was a big win, cementing Bath in the top half of the premiership and putting what little hope Purley had of winning the league right out of the window. Purley, at home started the game with only 9 men, but held Bath to 2 goals before getting the 10th man on the field, if they though that would even the odds they were sorely mistaken as the visitors continued to pile on the pressure and make better use of the slippy surface, going into the first quarter 5 nil in the lead. Purley didn't recover, losing some of their composure, every time they managed to score so did Bath, in fact Bath in all departments were the better team, going for every ground ball and moving the Purley defence around affectively. Doug Mackay, for the third game on the trot was just too hot for the opposition to handle, bagging another 6 goals (that's 17 in three games), but man of the match goes to Matt Grody, who ran the long stick middie role to perfection, throwing checks and coming up with ground ball like his life depended on it. A mention also to Nige Gates, who, yet again came up with some cracking saves. Mike Elmes playng his first ever game against Purley put in a crashing shot in the third quarter which goes down as goal of the game.If Bath can play at this level every game, there is every chance that they might have a say in who wins the league.Quote of the day:'Like I'm going to do something else'? Matt Grody after throwing the 4th big check on the trot being told to do the obvious by Ken Murray.'Yeh, I'm going to try and pick the ball up just to get it slashed when we're 5 up with 3 minutes on the clock, I need that hand for W***ing' Mike Brand