Mayfield preview

Its crunch time today (Saturday 7 May 2011) at the Mayfield Sports centre as Mayfield host Myton Warriors in a promotion decider.

Mayfield must win today in order to gain promotion to the elite premier division, the most prestigious amateur league in the country.

It’s a tough proposition with their opponents having won their last nine games on the trot and Mayfield having played only once in the last four weeks, a game they would rather forget as they went down in possibly their worst performance of the season at Cas Panthers last week.

Players and coaches at the Rochdale club are under no illusions and are acutely aware of the importance of this game.

Coach Butterworth said: “The rest of the season is gone now it’s all down to this afternoon, our whole season hinges on eighty minutes of rugby.

“We can’t do anything about last week or any other of the games we lost, but what we can do is go out on the pitch today full of confidence and with a will to win.

“We know we have the players to beat Myton, we know we have the skill to beat Myton, we just need to get it right on the day and we will win and bring premier division rugby back to Rochdale.

“Changes were made to the team last week and for some reason we did not perform so I have delayed naming my team for today, I want to see who is fit, not just physically but mentally too. We have a large squad and naming the seventeen for this afternoon will be tough but that’s a coach’s job and I will not shirk from that responsibility, then it’s up to those lads to justify their selection and win the game.”

Several players today will be playing their last game in the conference league with Maroney and Coombes returning to Australia after giving excellent service to the club also Chris Brett and Steve Wood will be stepping down after many years of putting their bodies on the line for Mayfield. These two especially will be sorely missed next season.

As befitting a game of this magnitude there has been a wave of match sponsors coming forward to support the club in the frame today are the Steve Wood Appreciation Society, Hanson Springs, The Weavers Arms and the Mayfield NWC team, Special guests of the club in recognition of their continued support are Murphy and Sons of Rochdale. Once again the club and committee offer heartfelt thanks to the fantastic efforts in raising sponsorship, to Dave Marcroft and Ace Electrical.

Fixture:
Nat Con div 1, Mayfield v Myton kick off 2.30pm