Mayfield tackle a player dilemma

Mayfield Alliance faced a massive challenge last weekend, with eleven players missing due to holiday and work commitments for their big match against Leigh Miners.

Coach Lee Durrant was confident that the seventeen players he managed to field were strong enough to take on the Miners; a tough side to beat with a couple of ex-pros in their ranks.

Mayfield never took a backwards step for the full eighty minutes, but the opposing home side had the game all but sealed within the first thirty minutes with four well-taken tries.

It wasn’t long before the Mayfield spirit came to the fore as Jake Johnson powered his way through the solid defence to grab his side’s first score.

As Mayfield got back their spark, John Marsland read the opposition play and nipped in for an interception try from two yards out which he then converted.

Miners grabbed another before half time, but Mayfield’s spirit never dimmed as Anthony Greaves almost scored again with a sixty-metre sprint.

The second half got off to a bright start for Mayfield with Sean Hill making some telling runs that weren’t capitalised on.

Anthony Bamford kept up team morale as Leon Ashworth took up the charge making bust after bust into Leigh territory; backed up by the impressive Lee Bradley.

Andy Lee made a great break evading tacklers as he passed to Chris McCormack who went fifty metres before finally managing to touch down.

At 34-16 down many teams would have given up hope, but coach Durrant said: “McCormack’s try epitomised the Mayfield spirit and never say die attitude.”

This positive approach was evident again as Greaves threw a superb twenty-metre pass to Dave Devlin, who brushed off the Leigh defenders and scored out wide. 

At the final whistle, Mayfield weren’t disappointed despite their 46-22 defeat. They were proud of their performance and look forward to their next game with the bonus of returning players and that crucial home advantage.