Goole took the spirit of giving at Christmas to the extreme on Saturday when they gift wrapped a total of nine tries to their festive season opponents Morley in one of the most disappointing performances for many years. Goole looking a distant shadow of the side that pushed league leaders Bradford Salem all the way in their last home fixture.

The warning signs were there to see from the opening kick-off as Morley took the early lead from their first visit to the Goole 22, taking advantage of a penalty kicked to the corner and strong carries to get them over the line 0 – 7. That was just about as hard as it got for Morley when it came to scoring points as Goole essentially gifted eight more tries in the match as Morley scored at a point per minute to build a 0 – 40 half time score from six tries. It was a Coach’s and spectator’s nightmare with basic non-compliance to defensive duties, with the absence of any alert defenders at three breakdowns resulting in a Morley player simply picking up at the base and strolling through unmolested to score converted tries under the posts. Add to that three full length of the field tries from the pacey Morley backs following lost possession by the Goole attackers near the Morley line and you get the picture. This was not going to be Goole’s day. It was not as though they threw the towel in and there was full commitment from a number of players, with Josh Malcolmson being a great example, working and tackling tirelessly in the back row instead of his usual centre position.

Having said all that, we should not take anything away from Morley, they were magnificent in just about everything that they did, capitalising on Goole’s weaknesses at every opportunity. Goole could simply not cope with the pace, power, organisation and enterprise of their opponents who will continue their climb up the table if they continue to play to this standard. Thankfully Goole did manage to get on the scoreboard with a late unconverted try from the returning Matty Lill to avoid a second zero score for the season but that was the best Goole had to offer on a day to forget.

Massive bottom of the table clash for Goole next week with a tough away game against Old Crossleyans who sneaked a win at Goole early in the season. A failure to get anything from that fixture will undoubtedly make Goole’s task of finding a way outside of the relegation positions very difficult but with the hopeful return of injured players and a change of fortune, it will be possible as we have shown in previous seasons.