I heard John Walsh say on the radio on the way home "a very poor Gateshead team" but that was taking away from Town how good they were. Town scored several tries from 50 - 60 yards out with lovely flowing rugby and they would have scored tries against several teams with this sort of game.
Mattinson was the leader of the pack today and had a good game but I would like to give some praise to lads who don't usually get the accolades, lads like young Bainbridge who I thought had an excellent game. Kris Cowards was immense against some very big Thunder forwards as was Shackley when he was on and those two with strong runs made a lovely try for Elliot Miller. Everyone defended very well and Gateshead spent just as much time in Towns half as we did in theirs. John Patrick was another who had a very good game on his debut.
Thunder looked quite lively at times but just lacked a cutting edge and a bit more bottle in defence. I heard someon had sent a message in to Radio Cumbria saying Town think they are a big team once again and only get 350 crowd. Well, if that was the crowd today then I would be demanding a recount. Several of us were estimating around the 600 - 650 mark based on years of standing in 400 - 500 crowds.
Edited by Keith T, 13 February 2011 - 05:35 PM.













