Rugby League: Oulton 25 – 24 Mayfield

Photo: Aidy Gleeson Snr

Man of the Match Dec Sheridan

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Mayfield arrived at Oulton full of confidence and warmed up like a team who were out to win but Oulton had other ideas and finished the winners by a solitary point.

The Oulton defence was the highlight of the game with three and four men in each tackle.

Mayfield started well enough taking the lead after five minutes when Lewis Sheridan kicked through on the first and Matty Ashton raced through to collect and show the defence a clean pair of heels as he raced on to score. Sheridan converted.

Within fifteen minutes the ferocious defence had resulted in Mayfield losing two players as first Seta Tala and then Sean Watkins had to leave the field with head and knee injuries respectively.

This upset Mayfield's rhythm and minutes later an unforced error saw Oulton respond sharply and their winger dived over for a converted try to level the scores.

Mayfield came back well and threw the ball about showing glimpses of the rugby they are capable of.

Aidan Gleeson made a good break and found Matty Ashton who in turn found Wayne English in support. English showed his pedigree as he avoided the defence to go over under the posts. Sheridan again added the two.

Just as Mayfield were again taking control they lost another player when Kieran Harmer left the field with an ankle injury. Before they had chance to regroup Oulton threw the ball wide and their big centre crashed over for a four pointer to narrow the gap.

Mayfield took the narrow two point lead into the break.

Early in the second half, Declan Sheridan and Munya Samanyanga combined to put Aidan Gleeson in out wide.

From the next set the same two combined again this time with English the benefactor as he bagged his second try. Lewis Sheridan converted, to give Mayfield a 12 point lead.

Instead of putting Oulton to the sword, as they should have done, Mayfield eased off and Oulton took the game by the horns showing tremendous resilience scoring two converted tries to level the score.

Mayfield, sensing they were in trouble, optied for a long range shot at goal when awarded a penalty 45 yards out - which Sheridan expertly slotted over to reclaim the lead for his side.

It didn’t last long though as Oulton took the same minutes later to make the score 24 – 24.

With five minutes to go Oulton slotted over a neat one pointer to take the lead for the first time in the game.

Try as they did Mayfield couldn’t get back and Oulton took the game by one point.

They celebrated like they had won the cup and if they keep up the same enthusiasm for the rest of the competition they well might.

Mayfield were left counting the cost of not killing the game off when it was well within their capabilities and putting in a poor last thirty minutes that allowed their opponents to capitalise on their ferocious defensive effort.

The Oulton coaches named Dec Sheridan as man-of-the-match, but also worthy of a mention was Jimmy Connaughton, Wayne English, and Matty Ashton.