THEY led at half-time for the first time all year, but Gateshead Thunder’s miserable Co-operative Championship One campaign finally came to an end without a single win to their name.
Eighteen months and 38 games since their last league victory, the early signs had been positive for Thunder who were roared on by a crowd of 527 – almost double their normal home average with admission having been reduced to £1.
The added atmosphere was spurring them on, and just seven minutes had elapsed when Dan O’Sullivan chipped behind the defence and collected his own kick to score in the right corner.
Doncaster hit back against the run of play when Gareth Potts scorched 60 metres on the intercept to level the sides, and Gateshead old-boy Stuart Sanderson put the Yorkshiremen in front with a break down the left-hand touch-line.
For once, however, Thunder’s composure looked like holding firm. Rather than the customary collapse, there was shape and resolve. O’Sullivan was once again at the heart of things, and when he reached out an arm to slam the ball down on the try-line for a second time, his side were back in front.
Paul Stamp’s conversion and penalty from a high tackle 20 metres out secured a 14-10 interval lead, and already dreams were starting to form that this could be the moment for their season of torture to end on a rare positive note.
Those hopes began to fade as full-back Mick Butterfield snuck over amid a heap of bodies to level the scores, and almost straight from the restart the visitors assumed the lead as Carl Hughes dotted down from a high-ball fumble.
Craig Fawcett and Nev Morrison were next over the try-line for Doncaster, and a succession of up-and-unders yielded yet more misery as Hughes pounced for his second.
Despite their best late efforts the hosts could not muster up a consolation score, with statistics of 1,094 points conceded and 268 scored in reply for the year making brutal reading.
A policy of no relegation means Thunder will live to fight another day in rugby league’s third tier, but head coach Kevin Neighbour faces a monumental task in attracting the calibre of player who can lift the club from their current sorry state.
