Fleetwood RUFC 14 Glossop 39: No surrender but Fleet are well beaten

The game started ominously, with Glossop pressing continuously.

Though late off the bus due to traffic problems, the visitors soon showed their intent with controlled forward play and decisive movement in the backs.

A couple of well worked early tries were unconverted, while Fleet showed great resolve in defence.

With the wind against them, the home side struggled to clear and set up attacks, while Glossop’s front five dominated the scrums.

The home defence continued to thwart Glossop until a third unconverted try on the stroke of half-time made it 15-0 at the break.

That became 25-0 after an early penalty in the second half and a converted try following an unlucky slip in defence.

Fleet were beginning to make half-breaks but fell further behind when a kick wrongfooted the defence and led to another converted try.

More organised attacking saw Gavin Rowell’s converted try get Fleet on the scoreboard at 32-7, and a second followed when Chris Jones recovered from a crunching tackle to score.

That was as close as Fleet got as a late interception try was followed by a conversion to complete the scoring.

Full marks to the Fleetwood forwards for refusing to be overrun and to the whole side for their tenacious defence.

However, this fifth defeat out of seven leaves Fleet in the bottom three of Lancashire/Cheshire division one.