Durham battle back from the brink to defeat Northumbria

Many managers and coaches are harangued for filling their press conferences with clichés, mindless sayings, and even the odd Ron Atkinson-ism. However, for once the well known, “game of two halves” does apply.
Trailing 12–0 to Northumbria at half-time, Durham found a way to respond in the second half and score fourteen unanswered points to kick-start their season, and hopefully begin a strong push towards the play-offs.
The offence that had seemed stuck in neutral for almost two games, exploded in the final quarter to create the impressive come-from-behind win.
Following last week’s tough loss to Hull, the Durham Saints saw Sunday’s match as a must-win encounter. However, a lack of intensity in the first half allowed an inferior Northumbria team to control the game on both offence and defence. The Mustangs’ tough running game was able to make considerable yardage on the Saints’ defence, and they also capitalised on Durham’s profligacy with the ball to convert two turnovers into two touchdowns.
This was not the start that the Saints had hoped for, and left them looking at a huge task in the second half. With a stuttering offence and tired defence that had been left with a short field to defend on several occasions, the outlook for the Saints looked bleak.
In the last two years of Saints American Football, they had never been able to stage a fightback from such a deficit, therefore making the nature of Sunday’s victory even more astounding.
With the stalemate of the second half remaining intact until midway through the final quarter, Durham’s offence finally mnaged to put together two sustained drives that ended in points.
First, Simon Race was able to dart into the endzone to cut the deficit in half, and this was backed up by a good hook-up between Jack Barton and David Humphrey to complete the two point conversion.
With the defence now stopping the Mustangs’ offence with relative ease as they adjusted to counter-act it, the Saints took the ball back, and took the lead, when quarterback Andrew Swain carried the ball into the endzone.
A game that had seemed lost to Durham Saints for so long was now brought back into the balance. However, there was still time remaining on the clock, in which the Saints were forced to mount a goal line stand in order to halt a possible Northumbria score, including dramatically stopping the Mustangs from the 1 yard line on two successive plays to preserve the win.
A huge defensive effort in the second half of the game to secure the win was lead by Karol Wehr and James Drake, who ended the game with an interception which killed any chance of an eleventh hour Northumbria comeback. A Saints offence that had seemed stuck in neutral for almost two games, exploded in the final quarter to come from from behind and snatch a well-deserved win.