Second straight win for Ponte

Ponte went into Saturdays game away at Barnsley, full of positivity after a strong win in the first game of the season. Barnsley were looking for their first win of the season after losing away the week before, so the game promised to be a good encounter.
The game ebbed and flowed during the first half with neither side making clear who was going to prevail in the game. Barnsleys strong pack featured well against Pontefracts pack, which caused problems early doors, however strong defence from the backs and the forwarda after a number of phases soon stopped the attacking threat of Barnsley.
Pontefracts strong running by the backs caused many issues for Barnsley who were struggling to keep with the pace and after 20 minutes, a penalty was given, which was coolly converted by Ian Mattison. A few silly penalties from Pontefract allowed Barnsley to get back in the game and kick a penalty themselves to make the score level at 3 – 3. Soon again though the backs with their attacking presence caused issues, again penalty given to Pontefract which was again converted by Mattison. Glen Boyd was running the back line and was given too much space by the Barnsley backs, enabling Boyd to organise some creative plays. Some strong running by the pack led to some good positions in field, however the team just couldn’t keep possession. The last play of the second half saw a good line hit by Hill which was then dispatched quickly to Boyd by the young 9 Callum Watts, for Captain Craig Fawcett to break free after a running a great line and offloading to Bacon who calmly put the ball down under the posts for the first try of the game, this was converted by Mattison. Pontefract had never really got out of first gear in the first half, so the half time talk was easy, play to our game and the win will come.
Straight form the second half the teams fitness showed, Barnsley had started to slow and Pontefract started to find the holes in Barnsley’s defence. From a good line out to the back of the line, young Callum Watts distributed the ball to Boyd who quickly set on the Barnsley backs, putting Fawcett through hole who then used his pace to run through the line to offload to Bacon to score his second try of the game. Ponte then got on a roll putting more and more pressure on the Barnsley defence every time they got hold of the ball. Eventually the Fawcett used his pace again to break the line and score under the posts.
Barnsley then came back into the game with some sustained pressure but was stopped at every occasion from Pontes strong defence. The last play of the game saw Barnsley sneak a penalty try, but was too late, Pontefract had won the game and marked their first away win of the season