Vagabonds’ slump continues

Vagabonds’ poor run of results continued with a 39-19 defeat at home to Hoylake in EuroManx South Lancashire/Cheshire Division One.

Phil James crashed over for the visitors in the sixth minute to get the ball rolling.

Stand-off Stevie Young then knocked over a penalty as the momentum began to build.

The floodgates opened in the 23rd minute when Hoylake scrum half Dom Kearney took a quick tap penalty and sneaked over for a try, which Young converted.

From the restart, Hoylake moved the ball left where the Baldock brothers took charge of proceedings.

Wing Jay beat Vagas’ wing Chris Bradshaw and offloaded to brother Dan who scored under the posts to kill Vagabonds hopes.

Tom Selby scored just before half-time for Hoylake as they dominated the game in all areas and the threat continued into the second half.

Flanker Will Selby punched through the home defence to stretch the lead to 34-0 before Vagas decided to come to the party.

Jason Bowden was driven over by his fellow forwards to get the hosts on the scoreboard.

The revival continued when Bryan Kennaugh won a footrace to a bouncing ball and, when Jonny Beckley converted, the score stood at 34-12.

Beckley then touched down himself and added a conversion to pull it back to 19-34 before Hoylake finished it off for sure with a Chris Whitely try.