Saturday saw Stockport 3's back in league action, albeit at Headlands Road as the fixtures against Manchester Medics had been switched which meant a 3rd consecutive home fixture on the bounce. Being at home (ie close to home) turned out to be a blessing in disguise for our first DOTD nominee, prop Jez Taylor was having got half changed was seen running across the car park in his match shirt, slacks and shoes shouting out something about having left a majority of his kit at home on the bed!!!

The team gave seasonal debuts to hooker Andy Broadhurst and No.8 Matt Lawrowitsch as well as senior rugby debuts to colts Oscar Grocock and Jacob McLean. A few positional changes saw Dom Waterhouse into the back row and it was clear that he was eager as he arrived early at the club.............much earlier than lock Chris 'Cougar Cub' Dodd who was still nowhere to be seen and unusually late until it was highlighted that he was picking up Dom's mum!!!!! Now surely the questions here are :
1) Why was Doddy picking up Dom's mum and
2) Why was Dom already there without his mum????

No balls had been dropped yet and we already had 2 glaring DOTD nominees!!!!

Stockport kicked off the game playing into a slight breeze and it soon became clear it was going to be a battle of the home sides pack again the speed, fitness and energy of the significantly younger opposition. Stockport were ridiculously dominant in the scrum which led to penalties from which they laid siege to the visitors try line and soon this pressure paid off as the ball was fed out to fly half Rick Morgan lurking on the right wing to scamper in and then convert his own try for a 7-0 lead. Wing Gaz Thomas then had to leave the field through injury to be replaced by Andy Rimmer who was forced to leave his daughter on the bench after resident creche leader Daniel Cockersmith was nowhere to be seen?? Despite the strong start, the home side had unfortunately not heeded the ref's pre-match briefing about tackle height and this was to become the theme of the game as penalty after penalty was conceded which eventually led to the visitors scoring to bring it back to 7-5. This was soon 7-10 and then 7-17 as Stockport looked like they were rabbits in the headlights of cars, making no effort to tackle and allowing the opposition to do whatever they seemingly wanted. Things went from bad to worse as prop Dave Burr then saw yellow, with the referee having had enough of high tackles and the Medics made their numerical advantage pay with a 4th try which they converted and Stockport were now staring down the barrel of being 7-24 down at half time. With a dressing down from scrum half Dudley Southern, the home side retook to the pitch with a new mindset and before long, the scrum was again paying dividends as they drove over the line for No.8 Dom Waterhouse to just about score without knocking on at the base for a Morgan converted score and with that, the half time whistle sounded with the score line 14-24 against Stockport.

Again it was reiterated that we just needed to play basic rugby and stop forcing it as we were still in the game. Despite this call, the second half saw us back to free flowing penalties however from one such incident, the ball found itself in the hands of wing Max 'Toupeedo' Bailey who put in one of his chip and chase efforts, with everyone screaming "no" as he took off along the turf with his thinning thatch flapping in the wind and he unbelievably made it to the ball first for a 3rd Stockport score converted by Morgan and it was now 21-24 and game on. Just when we thoughts things could be no better, Southern perfectly read a Medics line out and intercepted his opponents pass to scorch over for a 4th try converted by Morgan and it was now 28-24 with all to play for. Unfortunately that ability to concede silly penalties and make unforced errors came to the fore and now it was a trip to the sin bin for Lawrowitsch for accumulative team infringements which allowed the Medics to push themselves back ahead 28-31. No sooner had Stockport returned to a full compliment that it was the turn of Broadhurst to take a 10 minute rest and again, the Medics took this opportunity to extend their lead and it was now a 10 point gap at 28-38. By now McLean had replaced centre Keith Warhurst whilst flanker Ben Unwin was on for Taylor and another push saw that man Southern forcing his way over for his 2nd try, converted by Morgan and the home side were back in it and chasing the win at 35-38. Despite their best efforts, the home side could not hang on and a further converted score saw the Medics back ahead by 10 points which led to Stockport throwing the kitchen sink at the opposition, however further unforced errors like Morgan fumbling to pick up the ball like an old woman who had dropped her shopping led to a disjointed effort, albeit Dodd thought he had forced his way over at the end only for it to be ruled as held up and with that, the referee brought the game to an end.

A frustrating game littered with penalties and yellow cards which prevented the home side from getting any kind of momentum together however there was still honourable mentions such as Max Bailey scoring another worldy try and both Grocock and McLean making their senior debuts however MOTM (voted both by his own team mates and the opposition) went to livewire scrum half, 2 try scoring hero Dudley Southern.

Now, I previously mentioned that both Taylor and Dodd were in the running for DOTD with their avoidable disasters pre-match along with Dodd's excuse that "the Seat Toledo is a pussy wagon" being bandied round the changing rooms however what I wasn't of was that the Irish Telegraph had sent over intrepid rugby correspondent Seamus McCaughey to cover the game of his son. All players were rated out of 10 however the stand out report referred to skipper and lock Mel McCaughey which read.......

"McCaughey - 4/10 Completely ineffective in open play. He made some carries however was anonymous for a majority of the game. His lack of fitness is a worry and questions remain about his leadership"

When you are slated by your own dad (no, not you Rhys) you HAVE to be DOTD so step forward skipper Mel McCaughey : )