Mayfield preview

It’s a big day for Mayfield on Saturday (27 November 2010), with the first team away at league leaders Widnes St Maries and the NWC side playing at home against fierce local rivals Rochdale Cobras.

St Maries have only tasted defeat once this season from eleven starts which is a fantastic achievement for any side, but Mayfield are the form side at the moment with six wins on the bounce, so this should be the game of the day in division one. After a poor start Mayfield have really seen their season come together and are playing with flair and confidence.

Coach Sam Butterworth is pleased with the way the things are going at the moment, the forwards are dominating the opposition in most of the games and the backs too are hitting a rich vein of form with tries coming from all over the park.

“There was a lot of lost ball last week, we have highlighted this in training and the lads are aware of the cost when we give the ball away. It may sound simplistic but if we have the ball the opposition can’t score tries and that’s it,” said Butterworth.

“Saturday will be a stern test for the team and we need to pull out all of the stops if we are to come back from Widnes with the two points. Coombes and Gleeson will face fitness tests along with Kristian Duffy who picked up a shoulder injury in last weeks victory. A coach leaves at 12.00 and all supporters are welcome. Players meet at club as per pre match text,” concluded Butterworth.

As the first team coach leaves the NWC team will be concentrating on their task in hand on Saturday, and that is to progress through to the next round of the cup. They face Rochdale Cobras in the North West Counties Bowl, Mayfield were awarded a walk over last week when their opponents failed to show while Cobras scraped through narrowly defeating Accrington from division six.

“We all know though that past form counts for nothing in a local derby especially in the cup. Mayfield will be out to avenge the early season defeat they suffered at the hands of the Cobras and Ashworth has been delighted with the response from players in training this week with twenty lads showing up on both nights. Lads are fighting for places and that sort of competition is always good at a club,” said Ashworth, “We have a good blend of youth and experience with players hitting form at the right time. We are in the middle of a good run of results and its no coincidence that this run is happening while lads are putting in the extra effort on the training pitch, we have a full squad to select from and are looking forward to a good performance on the day. Players meet as per pre match text.”

Fixtures:Nat Con div1, Widnes St Maries v Mayfield. Ko 2.00
NWC div4 Mayfield v Rochdale Cobras. Ko 2.00