St Anne 8 – 14 Mayfield

Mayfield came away from Oldham with their name in the draw for the next round of the Standard Cup after negotiating their way past Anne's in a scrappy game on Saturday.

Coaches Matt Calland and Sam Butterworth made a couple of changes from last week's team as they look for their strongest line up for the coming season.

There were some impressive performances with Eric Johnson, Paul Brearley, Luke Sampson and the Australian duo Mitch Spackman and Matt Ovington in particular standing out. 

St Anne started strongly with their big forwards taking on the Mayfield pack down the middle of the pitch.

A penalty for a high tackle gave the home side their first points on five minutes, 2 -0.

Mayfield took this in their stride, soaked up the early pressure and hit back with an unconverted try from Eric Johnson after Luke Sampson and Jamie Hopkins had given their side good field position. 2 - 4.

Anne's again applied the pressure and were camped on the Mayfield line when a scuffle resulted in two sin bins.

Anne's reacted quickly threw the ball wide and were rewarded with try, 6 – 4.

The introduction of John Stott gave Mayfield a boost and he showed his class as he evaded the tackle and found Adam Dybdall with a perfect pass Dybdall in turn carried the ball forward and found Paul Brearley in support and Brearley went over from 20 metres without the defence laying a hand on him. 6 – 10.

Another needless penalty just before half time allowed Anne's to peg Mayfield's lead back to two points. 8 – 10.

Mayfield dominated the second half and were unlucky not to score as John Stott put Nick Hargreaves in the clear but with the line in front of Hargreaves’smeant the chance was wasted.

The only score of the second half came as Stott threw a long ball out to Rob Kershaw who raced for the line only to be stopped short but from the quick play the ball Nick Hargreaves powered his way over for a try that Aidy Gleeson converted. 8 – 14.

This was a typical pre-season game, a bit scrappy from both teams. Mayfield had the lions share of possession and should really have scored more points but for a resolute Anne's defence.

Calland and Butterworth were reasonably pleased with the performance but also know the team can play better, "we’ll take this into next week's friendly with Crossfield and improve on it ready for the season proper on the second of March," said Sam Butterworth.

Team: Matt Ovington, Rob Kershaw, Nick Hargreaves, Ieuan Higgs, John Foy, Paul Brearley, John Marsland, Mitch Spackman, Eric Johnson, Matty Moores, Luke Sampson, Adam Dybdall, Ben Butterworth, John Stott, Jamie Hopkins, Aidy Gleeson, Ian Sampson