Woolston Rovers 46 Gateshead Storm 16

WOOLSTON Rovers secured back-to-back wins courtesy of an excellent performance at home to Gateshead Storm.

John Fieldhouse's side, in second place five points adrift of leaders Crosfields in National Conference League Division Three, were never in trouble against the lowly North East outfit despite having one player sent off another sin binned.

The green and golds were 18-0 ahead before Storm troubled the scoreboard and will aim to be as dominant again on their next outing against another struggling side, Waterhead, in Oldham on Saturday, July 23.

“The lads stuck to the game plan, and the structure that we had across the park was good," said Fieldhouse.

"We let in a couple of soft tries midway through the first half but then we lifted the tempo and pulled away, scoring some great tries."

Fieldhouse explained that his troops benefited from a good amount of possession.

"Our completion rate was 78 percent. That is around the target I have been asking the lads to reach," he said.

High praise was given to his loose forward.

"I thought Dan Fearnley had his best game of the season for us," said Fieldhouse.

"He is improving each week and he caused plenty of problems for Gateshead in both attack and defence.”

Chris Mellor sold a dummy and raced 25 metres unchallenged to open the scoring in the eighth minute.

Spanish international Dani Garcia O’Brien put Wil Maudsley away for the second before Fearnley started a move finished off by Ryan Brown, with Will Chadwick converting all three tries.

A Storm purple patch brought them two tries but the response was further efforts for Rovers from Cameron Davies and Olly Parr for a 28-10 interval advantage.

The outcome was nailed in the 42nd minute when Brown and Davies combined for Maudsley's second try.

Bobby McGregor extended the lead, Rovers kept Storm at bay while Maudsley was in the sin bin and then Holt raced 30 metres for his second try.

Substitute Wez Lawton was dismissed for punching, while Gateshead had substitute Chris Parker sin binned for running in.

The hosts scored their final try three minutes from time.

Rovers: Wil Maudsley; Olly Parr, Dani Garcia O’Brien, Craig Middlemore, Christian Taylor; Theo Holt, Will Chadwick; Chris Mellor, Ryan Brown, Richard Potts, Cameron Davies, Anthony Clayton, Dan Fearnley. Subs: Chris Twigg, Andy Addison, Bobby McGregor, Wez Lawton.