Streets’ effort goes unrewarded with defeat at Saffron Walden

Old Streetonians remain in a perilous position towards the bottom of London Two North East following their 12th defeat of the season, this time away to Saffron Walden.

The visitors began the game well and spent the first 15 minutes in the Saffron Walden 22 before giving away a needless penalty that allowed the hosts to clear their lines and gain some territory.

Saffron Walden worked their way into the Old Streets 22, where the visitors immediately conceded another penalty, for not rolling away in the tackle.

This time the hosts decided to kick for posts, and their fly-half put them 3-0 up just before the 20-minute mark.

The visitors then responded in the perfect manner, to score their first try through scrum-half Chris McAtominey.

Old Streets fly-half Andrew Dunne broke through the Saffron Walden defence before offloading to flanker Harry Marsden.

The flanker then found McAtominey, who showed good pace to croaa for an unconverted try, bringing the score to 3-5.

However, Old Streets were not in the lead for long and almost immediately from the restart, Saffron Walden regained the advantage, going over in the corner for a converted try.

A further period of pressure from the visitors resulted in a string of penalties being conceded by Saffron Walden, which enabled Old Streets to gain good attacking position close to the tryline.

The pressure soon told, and from a scrum in the Saffron Walden 22, the Old Streets pack drove over for the referee to award a penalty try, which was converted for a half-time score of 10-12.

After finishing the first half strongly, Old Streets undone their earlier good work by knocking on from the restart and conceding a free-kick at the subsequent scrum.

Saffron Walden reacted first and took the free-kick quickly, catching the visitors off-guard to score their second try of the afternoon, regaining the lead at 15-12.

Things then went from bad to worse for the visitors, who gave away another penalty which resulted in three points for Saffron Walden and a yellow card for centre Nick Barham as the hosts extended their lead to 18-12.

Despite being a man down, Old Streets won a penalty which they used to get deep into Saffron Walden territory.

Once there, the forwards put pressure on the hosts, who then received a yellow card of their own for not rolling away.

Fly-half Dunne then stepped up to slot the resulting penalty, bringing Old Streets back in the game at 18-15.

The hosts responded quickly and managed to score an unconverted try in the corner, extending their lead to 23-15.

Old Streets came back strongly and drove over the hosts’ tryline only for the tiring pack to be held up.

The visitors then missed a crucial penalty, before Saffron Walden punished Old Streets with a final try, ending any hope of a losing bonus point.