Blaydon 39 Macclesfield 0

The Blues once again suffered a heavy defeat as their desperate campaign continued at Blaydon.

They’d travelled to the far reaches of the north east in search of their second away victory but Blaydon proved miserly hosts as they sent their guests away empty-handed.

Macclesfield travelled north expecting an extremely physical and confrontational encounter from the home side – and that’s exactly what they got as they went down 39-0.

Blaydon looked to maul and scrum the Blues off the park from minute one, although Macc put up a strong fight, the sheer brute force proved too much.

The first points of the afternoon came from the boot of Blaydon fly-half Andrew Baggett as the hosts earned an early penalty at the break down.

The first try of the afternoon came from Blaydon. With the penalty advantage they decided to chip in behind the oncoming Macc defence, the ball was pounced upon by Tom Bramwell and the try awarded and converted to make it 10-0.

A 20-minute period then passed where the Blues matched Blaydon all over the park and kept the home team at bay, however when Macclesfield had possession of their own, the flow of the game was stopped by a high error count.

Blaydon got their second try of the afternoon through Gavin Jones on the half-hour mark, a catch and drive line-out setting the tone for the remainder of the game.

This was the final score of the half, meaning the Blues went in 17-0 down.

Ten minutes into the second half Macclesfield were reduced to 14 men after fly-half Tom Eaton was sent to the bin.

Blaydon made the extra man count immediately. Once again from a catch and drive lineout, despite some interesting refereeing decisions, Shaun English touched down.

Fifteen error-stricken minutes passed before Blaydon secured their bonus-point try through Toby Bain.

Strong set-piece once again was behind the score.

With 10 minutes to play, Blaydon got their fifth try, once again after some loose play from both sides. Replacement hooker Fran Entressengle benefited from Nat Horsfall’s cross-field break.

Blaydon were clinical enough to take advantage of what seemed like every Macc mistake.

In the final minute of the game, Blaydon very much summed up the day’s play with their sixth try, a brutal catch and drive lineout providing another score for Chris Wearmouth, to cap a 39-0 win.

The scoreline was perhaps a little generous after what was not much of a spectacle for the neutral but that does little to alter the fact that Macclesfield had been well beaten.