Dewsbury Celtic 22 – 18 Gateshead Storm

Adam Houston reports from Crow’s Nest Park

Gateshead Storm travelled to West Yorkshire looking to follow on from last week’s win to face a Celtic side keen to put things right after a heavy defeat away to frontrunners Hemel stags. Gateshead should have opened the scoring as early as the first minute when indiscipline from Celtic saw the visitors with a penalty in a good position but resolute Dewsbury defence held them out and then forced an error to see them come away with the ball and after some neat play, Dom Byrne opened the scoring, Half Back Jamie Graves’ inside ball putting the loose forward in space to cross, the Scrum Half unsuccessful with his conversion attempt.

Storm hit back after 10 mins when Graves was unable to deal with a high kick on the last tackle, John Coutts gathering the loose ball to power over before stepping up to convert his own score, putting the visitors ahead. Storm coughed up possession directly from the kick off and Celtic punished them immediately, Winger Matty Shaw on the end of a brisk backs move seeing the ball moved wide quickly into the corner. Graves this time landing the extras from out wide.

Gateshead were next to score when Michael Dixon was pulled back chasing Coutts’ neat kick, the Halfback kicking the resulting penalty to narrow Celtic’s lead to 2. Storm took the lead 5 mins before half time when teenage Stand Off Scott Woods produced a moment of magic, breaking deep from his own half, showing great footwork to beat numerous Celtic defenders before being hauled down by fullback Jack Millington. From the resulting play, Josh Stoker crossed in the corner leaving Coutts with a tricky touchline conversion which just fell short.
Dewsbury had the final say of the half though when Matt Clarke crossed just before the hooter, a break from Josh West saw the standoff spot a gap before putting the supporting Centre in space to score.

The home side furthered their lead with the opening score of the second half when strong prop Tim Land powered over from close range which Graves converted to put Celtic 2 scores ahead. Skipper Dom Byrne was sin binned for the hosts for an illegal tackle. Storm looked to make the most of their numerical advantage and came close on a number of occasion before Stephen Welton powered through the Dewsbury defence to score under the posts, only to see the ref award a knock on in goal and a tap 20 restart for the home side.

Celtic again stretched their lead when the ref penalised Storm for offside deep in their own half, Jamie Graves’ penalty putting them 10 points ahead with 20 mins to go. A late rally by Storm was held out by furious Celtic defence until the 70th minute. John Coutts’ inside pass allowed Mick Dixon to step inside the fullback and go under the posts allowing Coutts to tag the simple extras.

DEWSBURY CELTIC: Jack Millington, Matty Shaw, Matt Clarke, Danny Crabtree, Aiden Anderson, Josh West, Jamie Graves, Tim Land, Tom Perks, Alex Walmsley, Andy Gibson, Danny Lee, Dom Byrne

SUBS (all used): Dane Adleigh, Lee Wilkins, Gav Davies, James Halmshaw

GATESHEAD STORM : Josh Stoker, Michael Lassen, Andrew Morris, Mark Dack, Daniel Mole, Scott Woods, John Coutts, David Cash, Chris Burnett, Stephen Welton, Neil Emmerson, Michael Dixon, David Norman

SUBS (all used): Reece Young, Daniel Bamling, Stephen Coutts, Karl Brandt

Scorers:
Dewsbury: T: Byrne (2), Shaw (12), Clarke(40), Land (47)
G: Graves(3/5)

Gateshead: T: Coutts (10), Stoker (34), Dixon (70)
G: Coutts (3/5)

Man of the Match:
Storm: Chris Burnett, Celtic: Tom Perks

Half Time: 14-12