Mayfield v Saddleworth

Late cry offs through injury and work commitments meant Mayfield seconds travelled to Saddleworth on Saturday (2 October 2010) with only sixteen fit players.

Coupled with the fact that Saddleworth’s first team had no game and a couple of their payers were bolstering the second string it looked ominous from the start.

With only twenty minutes gone the home side were 20 – 0 up and things were looking grim for the visitors.

In true underdog fashion though, Mayfield stuck to the task and began to prise openings in the defensive line.

With Marsland and Lee finding some form and dictating play for long periods and Ashworth and Simpson making hard yards up the middle Mayfield at last got some reward when Abrahams crashed onto a ball and forced his way over for Mayfield’s first try, Marsland converted.

The Mayfield defence held firm until half time and the teams confidence was visibly lifted they came out for the second half raring to go and looking to reduce the deficit.

Unfortunately a defensive mix up allowed the home team to increase their lead and things looked bad again.

However the Mayfield spirit came to the fore and a great fight back began and when Andy Taylor intercepted and went the full length it was game on.

Not to be outdone Abrahams then rushed out of the line to steal another interception and race away for another converted try, the consensus in the bar after being that Abrahams was the better try and he definitely showed more pace than Taylor.

Saddleworth fearing an upset raised their game and nipped in for two more tries to end any realistic chance the visitors had of pinching the game.

With only a couple of minutes to go a great move involving most of the team saw Marsland swamped by four would be tacklers five metres from the line but he showed all the work on the weights is paying off and displayed great strength to off load the ball to the supporting Rick Rigby, who forced his way over in the corner for the final score of the game Marsland again converting. Final score 34 – 24.

Mayfield were up against it before the game had even kicked off, with the loss of several key players and this had an impact on the way the game began.

The hosts had already capitalised on this before the Rochdale side had got into their stride and the game truthfully was lost in the first twenty minutes.

Once the self-belief had come and Mayfield started to play rugby it was a much more even contest and one that with a more positive start they could have won.

Abrahams once again showed his class along with Taylor and Dave Banner, the Saddleworth coach awarded the man of the match to Marsland but he was over ruled by Ashworth who gave the award to Andy Lee for his non-stop efforts all over the field.