A story of pride, passion & Port

**Please note this was not written by myself, simply posted**

A warm but overcast day saw Stockport 4's embark on their 3rd game of the season and eager to secure a consecutive victory with a trip over to face Oldham 2's. Taking a squad of 21 players was a testament to the strength of the club and saw Stephen Dickson and Jake Lloyd make their competitive debuts for the club whilst Callum Conneally made his first start at prop. Lawrence Hiney, Ollie Wagstaff and Myles Mason were also making their first 4th XV starts of the season.

There has been a distinct lack of available referees this so far this season which has been much akin to an episode of Where's Wally, with referees playing the part of Wally. This week was another of those weeks with no allocated referee to which Oldham solved the problem by pulling in their former player and current coach which at least meant the game could go ahead so no complaints there. There were complaints aplenty from a vast amount of voices over the next 80 minutes however but as was said, a game is a game!!

The game then started, well at least for Oldham who were out of the blocks whilst Stockport started slowly which is fast becoming a team theme. A blistering run by the home side No.10 left a slumbering Stockport for dead and they soon found themselves 7-0 behind. The tone of the game was now being set with every mistake or penalty conceded gleefully celebrated by the home side, including the fact that they were kind enough to personally thank the player in the same manner you would reward a dog with a head pat, good boy Gordon!!! Led by skipper Ged Gurney the 4's were quickly back onto the offensive with the forwards becoming practically unplayable at scrum and line out time which led to period of pressure inside the Oldham 22. The dam was eventually broken when Hiney managed to burst through some would-be tacklers to register the first Stockport try of the game, converted by fly half Conor Osbiston to restore parity at 7-7. This soon became 12-7 as Kev 'Boyband' McCarthy managed a pirouette that Rudolf Nureyev would have been proud off to register the 2nd Stockport try of the half and despite a couple of Oldham penalties, a 3rd try was then registered after forward dominance allowed skipper Gurney to power over taking the score out to 17-12. As the half drew to a close, old Twinkle Toes McCarthy was at it again with his 2nd of the afternoon, converted by Osbiston taking Stockport into a well earned 24-12 lead at half time.

The 2nd half began pretty much like the 1st with Stockport's reliable sluggishness allowing Oldham back into the game however word on the street was that they may have brought on some 'reinforcements' to aid their performance. With the field now resembling a scene from the 70's programme M*A*S*H it was left to manager Rich Grainger to try and manage what able bodies he had left whilst trying to maintain some structure (think square pegs in round holes)? With bodies all around the pride and passion of the 4's was demonstrated by Osbiston who having already come off with a leg injury returned to the fray with a vacancy now at fly half that needed filling. With all this going on and some interest law interpretations around the new tackle height, Oldham clawed their way back into the game and 2 breakaway tries saw them into a 31-24 lead with minutes remaining.

If you watched just the last 8 minutes of the game, you would get a snapshot of the majority with Stockport camped in the Oldham 22 relentlessly pounding against the line only to be thwarted by a combination of penalties, none of which seemingly repetitive enough to warrant a yellow card and/or penalty try. McCarthy went close again and there was nearly a debut try for Stephen Dickson but was bundled into touch. With the home side scrum only going in One Direction (don't get excited Kev) Stockport had a put in to an attacking scrum on the Oldham line at which point the Oldham prior turned into Houdini and mysteriously disappeared?? The ref then went through the rigmarole of working out if there was anyone else who could prop as well as trying to discover the whereabouts of Houdini who was then located packing down at flanker. With him restored into the front row, enough confusion had reigned to disrupt a clearly perplexed Dave Holehouse at No.8 who was asking if it was contested or not and the pressure was released. With less than 5 minutes remaining, wing Myles Mason broke through to score however a difficult conversion was missed and left the final score at an agonising 31-29 to Oldham.

Losing is never the best but there were plenty of positives to be taken from the game and every player deserves huge praise for sticking to the task in hand. Rich managed the bench as best he could, often frantically trying to plug holes and swop players whilst on the field new guys like Lloyd, Mason and Paul Knowles dovetailed nicely with the rest of the including the tackling machine that is Ollie Wagstaff.

Like a rock in a storm is probably the best way to describe the MOTM but playing only his 3rd game of rugby, and his first at prop it was that man Cal Conneally who took the honours with rock solid scrummaging performance and some excellent line out lifting.

On to DOTD and you can imagine the sorrow, the heartbreak and the horror at seeing its poor content spread across the changing room floor like a scene from Jack The Ripper however that poor innocent bottle of port never stood a chance with the animal that is Pete Campbell around, taking such a young life too soon from this world.

Last but not least, the unofficial 4s support crew of Joe and Ethan who did a fantastic job of ferrying the water and kicking tee onto the pitch as well as taking some excellent match photos.