Mayfield 64 – 4 Westhoughton

Mayfield's charity cup final team: Mayfield 64 – 4 Westhoughton

This eagerly awaited cup final found Rochdale Mayfield well rested and well prepared. Coach Derek Buckley hasn't really been able to see how his work has been going due to lack of fixtures, due to the weather and one or two other matters. Mayfield have only had one outing this season before this clash.

Westhoughton were keen to take up the challenge of taking on Mayfield, where others had shied away. Though the score line shows the difference in quality of the two teams.

The opening kick from Westhoughton was somehow fumbled by the winger, giving Westhoughton some early pressure, on the Mayfield line. Though there were only seconds on the clock and under some exerted pressure, Mayfield withstood three sets of six, on their own line.

Once their nerves had calmed, and they managed to keep the ball in their hands, they then showed the difference in class.

With forwards, driven on well by hooker Damian Corcoran, made the hard yards needed.

Then the backs had the room to show what they could do. With good hands from Paul Hancock and Johnny Marsland, saw the backs start to dominate making clean break after clean break.

The thing to take from this display was the fact the try's were scored from all across the team, Nick 'Boggs' Hargreaves getting his hat trick in a 27 minute burst, well supported from Ieuan Higgs (4), James Percy (2), Dave Devlin, Jake Johnson, Mark Nyland, Joe Hart. Youngsters Gavin Low and Luke Hartley also showed how much they have improved over the last couple of weeks with a telling contribution to the game.

A good all-round performance, that has set a good platform for the rest of the season to build on.

The season proper will prove to be a lot harder but what they showed is that they have the ability to complete their sets and put into practice the set moves they have worked on in training.

 Anthony Greaves and John Low provided invaluable assistance on the day.