MINETY gained their first league points in Southern Counties South on Saturday, overcoming fellow strugglers Bradford on Avon 15-5.

Fielding a strong threequarter line but still reliant on recruits from the second team to complete the pack, Minety shared equal amounts of possession with Bradford but made far better tactical use of the ball they got.

Minety spent most of the game in their opponents’ half and when the visitors chose to ran the ball, they quickly found themselves tackled to a halt.

Minety made the first breakthrough midway through the first half.

Following a period of sustained pressure, they moved the ball through multiple phases, closing on the try line until a driving maul sent number eight Ian Illingworth over for the score.

Both sides had a player yellow carded in the first half. A Bradford player was sent to the sin bin early on for stamping on an opponent’s head and, shortly before the break, Minety flanker Charlie Gawthropp was sidelined for interfering with the Bradford lineout jumper in the air.

It was during Gawthropp’s 10-minutes absence that Bradford struck back, making a rare excursion into Minety’s 22 and mauling lock Chris Heale over the line for a try.

Minety’s response came early in the second half when full-back Tim Vaughan caught and ran back a long clearance kick.

Max Sparrow ran the ball deep into Bradford’s 22 before releasing a perfectly timed pass to Dave Church.

Church burst onto the ball and powered over for the decisive try.

Although Minety continued to press hard, they sometimes lacked composure with the ball and failed to convert a series of promising opportunities into points.

For their part, Bradford defended well, and in the end Minety had to be content with a penalty goal from Ward instead of another try.

Minety relaxed their grip in the closing 10 minutes but although Bradford did their best to scramble a score, there was no way through.

Minety coach Huw Jones said: “We had a great 70 minutes but then lost our discipline a little in the last 10.

“I thought we drifted down to their level in the first half but we upped our tempo after the break and looked much better.

“It was a bit frantic at times and we could have had half a dozen tries if we’d made better use of our breaks, but it was a win and I’m delighted with that.”

Reduced to 14 men, Minety 2nds held Bradford on Avon until the closing minutes of the game, when the home team’s numerical superiority helped them to a 22-17 win.

Tries from Scott Hick, Steve Murray and Milo Hartley made it 17-17 going into the latter stages.

But with 20 minutes still to go, an injury to winger Ben Scott reduced Minety to 14 men.

For 18 minutes, they held on, but with the clock ticking down, Bradford exploited their automatic overlap and finally landed the winning try.

“The result was a shame but I’ve no complaints,” said Murray.

“Everyone in a Minety shirt had a great game and played their hearts out.”