Sheffield beat Haven

By the Marra
Date: 25/3/2001

Haven 12 - Sheffield 18 (6-12)
It used to be the away games that let us down...what is going wrong. To make matters worse it was not that Sheffield were all that dynamic, they even had two players sin binned for offences and getting lippy with the ref.

In a scrappy and tense league game Haven lost to an uninspiring and plodding Sheffield Eagles.
Phil Sherwen will be kicking himself for failing to catch a high lob over the vsisitor's try line in the first half. On sensed that Haven could so easily have taken control, but they came up against a routine but well disciplined Sheffield.
Haven came within a foot of the line twice and bad luck seemed to dog them. Both Haven tries came from bursts of speed by David Seeds. But although O'Neil made one conversion from way out on the wing he failed to make two penalty opportunities.
Aaron Lester never appeared to quit and Campbell, Joe and O'Neill were creative play makers, but the sheer desperation was as cruel as the wind.
The powerful Richard Goddard caused Haven a lot of problems but what made Haven's showing even worse was the fact that on two occasions Sheffield players were sin binned. The killer blow came when Sheffield's Poynter realised with disbelief that there was not a single defender in front of him under the sticks. He simply trotted through an open door.
Disappointed fans may well start asking that question of the moment...how soon can we get Jacko back.
Match sponsors were BNFL.
Attendance 900 plus
Haven: O'Neil, Wignall, Seeds, Hill, Campbell, R.Purdham, Joe, Cox, Lester, Fatialofa, Miller, Sherwen, G.Purdham, Kiddie, Devlin, Smith, Vaughan.