Gryphons return to winning ways !

The gryphons travelled to Chambers Park to play Portadown and ended a 3 game losing streak.

The game got underway and Portadown scored a penalty within minutes to put them 3-0 up.

The Gryphons got themselves back into the game when an overlap was created by some quick hands from Evan Wellard-McMillan and Jonny Baxter, the ball was given to Ned Stewart who side stepped the fullback and scored under the posts to convert his own score.

Bangor were guilty of indiscipline, especially near their own 22 and two more penalties were kicked to give the home side a 9-7 lead.

With only a couple of minutes to half time an acrobatic effort from Mark Vance claimed the restart and gave Bangor an attacking position. Again some excellent handling gave Ned Stewart some space and instead of taking on the fullback unselfishly passed to captain Jamie Mendez who had an easy run in to the right of the posts. Ned converted to give the gryphons a 14-9 half time lead.

Words at halftime from Alan Atcheson and Jim Lacey clearly were inspirational as Bangor began the second half and looked like a different team with much better carrying, tucking and tackling.

A clearing kick from Portadown was taken by Ned Stewart who counter-attacked, then zig-zagged through the chase line and beat the trailing defenders to score under the posts, the simple conversion meant it was now 21-9.

The pressure from the Bangor pack was causing Portadown plenty of problems and eventually a spilled ball was picked up by Mendez, from 30m out he took off and beat the last man to score his second try. The conversion added now gave Bangor a 28-9 lead.

Quick thinking from scrum-half Chris Walton saw him put in a chip and chase to the blindside from a scrum. The chase was won by that Stewart who finished off his hattrick but could not convert from out wide. The final score ending 33-9.

With 3 home games still to go this season the Gryphons welcome Armagh this Saturday.