Milford (Leeds) 10 – 20 Rochdale Mayfield

A third difficult away trip to Yorkshire in as many weeks and the Mighty Mayfield defence stood firm to bring two valuable competition points back over the Pennines.

Milford was a form team and fellow promotion chasers but Mayfield’s resilience in defence and will to win shone through to overcome the spirited Leeds side.

The game opened brightly for Mayfield as they made use of the huge pitch and summer like conditions to pressurise the home side defence with quick play the balls and strong drives from the forwards.

Matty Moores and Ben Simpson were particularly impressive and on 5 minutes they forced consecutive penalties for holding down, and Lee Atkinson took advantage to dart over. It was too wide out in the blustery conditions for Aidan Gleeson to convert. 0-4 to Mayfield and they had the better of the next 10 minutes as well as they completed sets well and showed structure and flair in attack.

The midfield triangle of Taurean Sheehan, Damian Gibson and Matt Gartland were on fire and they combined well to get Mayfield into many attacking positions, which only desperate defence from Milford could repel.

Eventually the pace told as Matt Gartland ran at the line 20 metres out and forced his way through on the left hand side. Taurean Sheehan added the conversion to make it 0-10.

With the forwards running tough, the backs attacking at pace and the halves controlling matters Mayfield looked irresistible and they further extended the lead on 25 minutes when Damian Gibson collected a crisp midfield switch – clearly a move practiced hundreds of times on the training field – sliced through the ruck and showed great pace to round the full back for a Taurean Sheehan converted try.

0-16 and perhaps Mayfield thought they had done enough as they eased off a little and the game stayed centre field on the back of numerous penalties and mistakes from both sides. That score remained until half time and Mayfield turned around to face the stiff wind and a Milford side with a point to prove and game plan to test them. On the back of two skilful halfbacks, the home sides plan was simple – kick early to force mistakes and attack at pace in broken play. They did this with monotonous regularity, but despite poor completion in attack when clearing their line, the Mayfield line defence stood firm until 63 minutes when Milford used to open spaces to breach the defence following a succession of quick play the balls.

The pattern continued and as Matt Gartland, Taurean Sheehan and lee Atkinson struggled on manfully with knocks, but Mayfield’s conversion from attack to defence was poor. The last tackle options gifted Milford broken play possession in Mayfield’s half time and time again, but with resolute defence from Andrew Moroney in the middle and centres Steve Wood and Ian Sampson, Mayfield held them out until 70 minutes when the Milford scrum half finally pushed over the line for an unconverted try.

10 -16 and Mayfield faced what could prove to be a season defining 10 minutes.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man as Chris Brett made a clever break from the ruck on half way, Aidan Gleeson took two out of the next three drives, the last one beating two would be tacklers with ramrod hand offs. When finally stopped he produced a quick play the ball and Damian Gibson took advantage to round his marker, break the line and get to the full back. Another quick play the ball from Gibson, found Steve wood on the last tackle and he drew the cover to put Kristian Duffy in at the right corner. A fine try, which was roundly celebrated in the Mayfield ranks and made the game safe at 10-20.

Two more valuable league points for Mayfield who remain second in the table with three games to play. The next one, on Tuesday 5 April ay the Mayfield Sports Centre (7.30pm kick off), is against unbeaten league leaders Oulton – a true top of the table clash in the top tier of British Amateur Rugby League.