CHARLTON
PARK 34 FOLKESTONE 3.
Charlton Park finished off their league season
with a well merited win over Folkestone last Saturday that saw them
scoring five well constructed tries.
With a heavy shower of rain just before kick off
both sides were unable to control the ball with any continuity and the
opening plays of the match saw the ball being lost in possession.
Despite Charlton settling to their game the quicker of the two sides and
establishing field position it was Folkestone that had the first
opportunity to open the scoring with a long range penalty that went just
wide of the goal posts.
Once the rain had stopped Charlton began to pass
the ball well and a break from Winger Barry O'Keeffe, supported by Luke
Boyns saw Charlton going close to scoring a try but the final pass
eluded the supporting players and not going to hand.
With Folkestone giving away penalties it was
Charlton who opened the scoring with a successful kick from fly half
Billy Dawes but this score was cancelled out when the visitors scored
their own successful kick.
It was from the award of another penalty that
Charlton scored their first try of the half when following a kick for
field position at the ensuing line out Charlton drove the ball forward
to suck in Folkestone's defence and when the ball was released to the
backs centre Neil Collins took the ball on the burst to score the try.
Charlton holding the advantage maintained the
pressure and Folkestone were adjudged on a number of occasions to have
given away a string of penalties which enabled Charlton to keep on the
front foot. It was a moment of quick thinking from Dawes, when Charlton
were awarded a penalty, to note that O'Keeffe had an unopposed run to
the goal line and Dawes' well judged cross field kick was caught by the
wing at full pace to enable him to score the second try.
The remainder of the half saw Charlton in
control of the match and when called upon their defence ensured that
Folkestone did not come close to narrowing the home side's lead. It was
in the closing minutes of the half that Charlton were unlucky not top
score a second try when following a break by Gordon Holmner his long
pass found O'Keeffe and he was tackled into touch just shy of the goal
line by a frenetic Folkestone tackle. With Dawes adding one successful
conversion the half ended with the score 15 - 3 in Charlton's favour.
The start of the second half saw Charlton's play
meandering and lacking any continuity but this was a temporary glitch in
play and they soon restored their advantage with them pressurising
Folkestone in many facets of play.
It was following an error from Folkestone that
saw the ball reaching Collins and following his break Charlton, with
fine support running that created an overlap that was finished off by
O'Keeffe scoring his second try of the match and Dawes was unlucky to
see his conversion from close to the side line bounce off the upright.
With Charlton running the ball well it was
following a slickly executed handling move saw Charlton creating another
overlap and winger Joe Presney finished the move off by scoring the
fourth try of the game.
Through out the match Charlton had been quicker
to the breakdown and winning the ball at the contact point. It was Boyns
who scored the last try of the match when he stripped the ball from
Folkestone and following a run from just inside Charlton's half he
outstripped the Folkestone cover defence to score a try under the
goalposts to assist Dawes second conversion of the half.
Charlton Park Match Report verses Bromley
