Glossop 2nd 36 Holmes Chapel 16

HOLMES Chapel were brought back down to earth after falling to their first defeat of the North West Intermediate League Division Two South season.

After winning their first two games, Chapel’s confidence was high but ran into an in-form Glossop second team.

Josh Riley and Brave Steer crossed the whitewash for Chapel, while Andy Davies kicked two penalties, but they were well-beaten by their hosts.

Davies put the visitors 3-0 in front with the boot, but Glossop were soon in their stride as they crashed over the line following some heavy and sustained attack.

The sides swapped penalties to take the score to 10-6 in the home side’s favour before another home try made it 17-6 at the break.

Straight from the restart, however, the Glossop flanker caught the kick-off and bustled through several tackles before handing on to a teammate to score.

However, this seemed to stir Chapel into life and Riley got their first try of the game when he outpaced the home defence to score in the corner.

Chapel forced eight lineouts in Glossop’s 22, but the hosts won them all to drag the visiting forwards into an energy-sapping battle to win the ball back.

They continued to force errors and showed increased desire to attack, but that left gaps in defence for Glossop to score two breakaway tries.

This took the game away from Chapel, but they finished strongly and got the game’s final score when Steer bulldozed his way over.

Chapel are at home on Saturday as they host Capenhurst’s firsts at Station Road, kick off 3pm.