National League 1 - 2015-6 Wk 10

No walk in t'Park...
By stonehousealbion
November 7 2015

Having stretched their winning run to three games, Albion return home to the Brickfields and welcome Darlington Mowden Park (KO as ever is at 15.00). They will be galvanised by the convincing win at Dry Leas, having secured a 4T bonus in the opening quarter and then kept the line intact even when down a man to a yellow card (Ollie Dawe continuing the "family" tradition). Virtually unchanged over the victories, the gauntlet is now down for the rest of the squad who want to pull on the shirt. With several strong options on the fringes, this can only be a good thing overall.

Darlington Mowden Park started off in the immediate post-war era, like many a rugby club, as a grammar school Old Boys operation. In the early 70s, they decided to take control of their own destiny, made the move to Mowden, took the name and built their own clubhouse. Gradually making their way up the league system, they had some good runs in the National cup competition around the time of the Millenium, punching well above their weight and taking a few prestigious scalps (Level 2) on the way. A good few players have worn the Mowden Park shirt on their way to higher things (Toby Flood and Alex Tait to name but two...). In December 2012, well established in Nat 2 (N) and with no small ambitions, they secured the purchase of the Darlington Arena, the largest stadium in the football Conference (25 000 seats) after it was vacated by Darlington FC; the aim being to create a multi-sport venue. It was there that they won the play-off game (v Ampthill) to gain promotion to Nat 1 at the end of 2013/14.

Over the summer, they were widely fancied to be one of the front runners in this league, but it hasn't quite panned out that way. With just a couple of wins to their name (Cinderford and Loughborough), the rest has been a highly variable collection of defeats. They were there or thereabouts with Henley (28 - 30), Rosslyn Park (26 - 17) and Ampthill (32 - 20); less so against Blackheath (23 - 7) and Wharfedale (45 - 21), but took a real caning at Hartpury (50 - 7) on the weekend before the RWC break. At least by holding visiting Richmond to a loss by the narrowest margins (21 - 22) this last week, they've drawn some sort of line in the sand.

For our part, it has to be a question of more of the same attitude - not necessarily the opening blitzkreig, but a good measure of faultless execution and armour-plated resolve. No guarantee of an easy fixture (Did I mention that before?), but definitely winnable and the full five would perfect way to prepare for the forthcoming BIG challenges.

Sixteenth men/women, stand to! Let's give the Armed Forces a day to remember!

Here's the full fixture list:

Sat 14 Nov

Hull Ionians v Henley 14:00 Bramlingham Park

Loughborough Students v Wharfedale 14:00 UoL Stadium

Hartpury College v Ampthill 14:30 College Stadium

Coventry v Blaydon 15:00 Butts Park Arena

Esher v Rosslyn Park 15:00 Molesey Road

Fylde v Cinderford 15:00 The Avenue

Plymouth Albion v Darlington Mowden Park 15:00 Brickfields

Richmond v Blackheath 15:00 Richmond Athletic Ground

DMP factoid: The promotion-winning try in 2014 was scored by the wonderfully-named "Zylon McGaffin" after extra time and time added.

National League 1 - 2015-6 Wk 10

Posted by: Unofficial Plymouth Albion (IP Logged)

Date: 10/11/2015 20:30

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