Illingworth effort proves all in vain

Nov 7 2007 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ST JOSEPH’S failed to double up on last week’s Pennine League Premier Division victory as they went down 36-10 at home to Clayton.

The damage was done in the first half as the visitors from Bradford built up a 24-6 lead.

All St Joseph’s had to show for their early efforts was a Lee St Hilaire try and Neil Barrett conversion which made it 6-6 at the time.

And despite the sterling efforts of St Hilaire and man-of-the-match Adam Illingworth, there was little change after the break.

In fact, by the time Dave Simmonds had added the home side’s second try, they were already 30 points adrift.

Not surprisingly, it was a defeat – and display – that left head coach Jody Shaw feeling frustrated.

“We were disappointed with the performance more than anything else,” he said.

“I said to the lads afterwards that those kind of performances at this level will bite you.

“We must learn from this and move forward.

“Last week was a great team win against Queensbury, but we didn’t follow it up and it’s clear we still have more improvement in us.”