Rochdale Mayfield 16 - 19 Castleford Lock Lane

Rochdale Mayfield 16 - 19 Castleford Lock Lane, Mayfield man of the match Todd O'Brien

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Mayfield stumbled to a disappointing second successive defeat on Saturday as they fell to a committed Castleford side pushing for their second successive promotion.

Mayfield were their own worst enemy throughout the game as they served up error after error and failed to match the desire of the visitors.

The deadlock of a mistake ridden opening ten minutes was broken by Lock Lane as they capitalised on a Mayfield error in possesion at the play the ball, and they caught Nick Hargreaves and Mark Biggins flat footed at marker, to scoot in under the posts.

Mayfield tried hard to get back into the game and did so when they finally got field position from a Sean Snape break. Sublime offloads by by Aidan Gleeson and Ben Namulatua found Simon Moore in space, and he forced his way over for a fine try, converted by Gleeson.

The game then took a turn for the worse as Lock Lane tried all they could to put Mayfield off their game. This culminated in a red card for a Lock Lane player and two sin-binnings for one from each side for fighting.

Half time came and despite being a score behind, the home side and fans were confident of a better result from the remainder of the game, not only because of their numerical advantage, but also because the visitors seemed determined to test the patience of the referee.

His patience held though and with Mayfield still asleep after the break, a Castleford player strolled through weak middle defence to score easily under the posts.

Penalty after penalty ensued until the home side finally forced an error in their opponents 25, for Ieuan Higgs to slide in at the left corner and add a superb touchline conversion to level the score.

Mayfield could not capitalise as Lock Lane scored, again from a mistake in possession by the home side. The visitors added the conversion and fought tooth and nail to keep the lead, assisted by a lack of urgency, knowledge and commitment by the officials.

The visiting scrum half slotted over a drop goal, for a 7 point lead that was enough to take the game. Ieuan Higgs added a second try on 75 minutes, following repeat set pressure from M

ayfield, but it was too little too late as time ran out on a Mayfield side looking for the winning score.

Mayfield coaches both agreed Mayfield had only themselves to blame for the loss, but paid tribute to Mark Biggins in his last game for the club, as he continually fired the ball in and flung himself at the Castleford attackers. He was assisted by man of the match for Mayfield, Todd O'Brien, but too few of their collegues put in anything like their best performance, and Lock Lane took the points.

Mayfield now have a week off for the Wembley Challenge Cup Final, which will be shown live at the club.

Mayfield Team; Ieuan Higgs, Rob Kershaw, Nick Hargreaves, Carl Abraham, Ben Namulatua, Paul Brealey, Sam Butterworth, Mark Biggins, Todd O'Brien, Aidan Gleeson, Luke Sampson, Ben Butterworth, Eric Johnson, Simon Moore, Ben Simpson, Jack Ashworth, Sean Snape.