Fitting finale to a roller coaster season for Littleborough RUFC

Littleborough RUFC

A year that has seen bitter disappointment and joyous celebration in equal measure ended in the very way best as the Littleborough RUFC first team won promotion.

The team started the season with high expectations and were considered contenders for the title and they lived up to that tag in the first few weeks with impressive performances against Manchester Medic, North Manchester and Orrell.

The early season victories carried with it momentum that was becoming difficult for teams to stop as the Boro train continued to dominate and make October an unbeaten month to remember.

Forward to December and the majority of games were postponed with only one game, a comprehensive thrashing of Ormskirk at Rakewood, surviving the horrendous weather.

However, Littleborough entered 2016 on top of the table and with the best chance of winning the title in years.

The lack of competitive action in December told in January as promotion chasers Tarleton punished Boro side with a 15-10 win. Despite the poor performance, Boro came away from a tricky away game with the losing bonus point.

Boro bounced back with five wins, including a large rout of Bury by 66 points to nil.

Littleborough weren't at their best throughout the five game spell but showed superb defence and clinical finishing to put teams away. The forwards worked immensely hard and their tough endeavour paved the way for the backs to utilise superior skill to score the points.

A loss to West Leeds ended the Twickenham cup dream and the team needed to show real grit to dig deep and not let that affect the league form. They did so putting Didsbury to the sword before grounding a tremendous comeback win at home to title rivals Trafford MV.

Injuries then decimated the starting line-up with Ben Irving, Andrew Bairstow, Nathan Ripley, John Doherty all missing.

Littleborough coped against lower placed teams but when facing top opposition couldn't do enough to win and the title race went to the final game with Trafford MV in pole position.

Boro needed a bonus point victory and Trafford to lose to to Burnley to take the title; Boro secured the victory they needed, but the title slipped from their grasp as Trafford recorded a 55-22 win.

Littleborough did go on to win promotion by beating Cumbrian side Egremont 35-3 at Rakewood, with winger Matthew Goldthorpe beating the previous record of 29 tries in a league season by David Kearns with 31 in 25 games - a fantastic achievement and a season to savour for all in black, green and gold of Littleborough RUFC.