TRINITY 0-13 HOVE
Gerry Murphy reports on our Hove defeat.

What happened?  Were we complacent? Did we play enough for each other?  Whatever the answer, this was a poor day for Trinity after the exhilaration of last week’s performance.

A hungry Hove team, on the back of a 60-5 drubbing at Cobham played the conditions well and used their big forwards to choke Mids –   and Mids played their game. The Hove scrum was dominant early on and Trinity were grateful for the return of Chris Reid after a long period of injury, to steady things up.  The first half was dominated by Trinity in terms of territory and possession, but several good positions yielded no points as Hove defended well in their own 22.  George Kimmins, who could do no wrong last week from the tee, was off target with two penalty attempts and when, on 39 minutes, Trinity were awarded a penalty close in and directly in front, the decision was to run a practised move instead, which did not come off. There were some good carries by Adam Stammers and Farooq Agbalaya and Ali Hall featured in some assaults on the visitors’ line.  Khalil Alleyne showed plenty of fire and dash.  Hove did construct some dangerous attacks but there was an excellent tackle from Alex Willis, making his debut full start for Mids 1^st XV and good defence from Archie McMillan and Olly Wilcox who effected a fine turnover between them.

Trinity started the second half well but lost line outs in good positions.  An injury to McMillan saw them rejig the back line with Max Mouna moving into the centre and Ben Edmondson coming on. The Hove scrum had regained the advantage, and their line out was much more solid than Trinity’s.  From one line out they drove their maul 20 yards and then spread the ball at pace in a lovely move which was butchered when they knocked on with the line at their mercy. They now piled on the pressure as Trinity struggled to clear and from the next line out in the home 22, they drove their maul and set up the platform for the scrum half to skip over for the first score of the match on 56 minutes. This was converted.  Trinity came back well and surged into the 22 but then lack of discipline led to a yellow card for Farooq and all the momentum was with the visitors. Somehow Trinity stayed in the game. Veteran Mark Macaskill came on to help the pack, Stammers won a turnover, and they kept Hove out until Farooq had served his time. There was some strong defending from Mids and they lived in hope of something as long as there was only one score in it. However, this changed on 73 minutes when Mouna intercepted in midfield but play was called back for an earlier offence and Hove kicked the penalty to give Mids very little chance of coming away with a result. At the death some more indiscipline meant that Tom Wilcox was carded, and Hove closed out the game with another three pointer.

Next week will be a tough ask as Mids travel to face a strong Eastbourne side.

Match Report by Gerry Murphy
Match Photos from Pete Filewood (Flicker)
Match Photos from Neil Pepper (Facebook)