Leyland 6 - 48 Littleborough

Gaz Sharrocks was key to a good Littleborough performance

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Despite playing a team from the league above, Littleborough showed all the class and quality with a convincing win against Leyland Warriors in a friendly.

Littleborough's league match against Ince Rose Bridge was postponed due to Ince Rose being unable to raise a team. Leyland themselves had a free weekend and the friendly gave them a chance to keep match fit and work through some moves.

Straight from the kick-off it was Littleborough who were the team quickest out of the blocks. A fumble right from the start by Leyland was punished off the back of a scrum by Rigby and Browne, who fed Turner to dive in the corner. Coop missed the conversion.

Boro had their second try when Browne finished off a move by dummying the Leyland centre and cutting through the short space to squeeze over in the right corner again. The conversion sailed wide.

Leyland hit back with their only score of the game as Jonathan Roberts broke through missed tackle in midfield to dot down. In the action of dotting down, Boro full back Coop tackled the player high which didn't make a difference to the try being scored, but the referee gave a penalty try regardless.  The first conversion was missed.

The way Littleborough handled the set back was top notch and they made sure that they would not be caught on the scoreboard.

Murphy Holt crashed over from close range next to the right hand post, then Jason Rigby did likewise.

Boro were continuing to find gaps in the opposition defence and utilising the offload to great effect. Whittles, Drake and Jones had got Boro inches from the try line before Holt used his power and  prowess to burrow under a number of tacklers to score the Boro's fifth try and his second of the afternoon.

Half back Jack Whittles, who enjoyed a good afternoon and regularly made good breaks throughout, finally got a try for his efforts as he powered through a couple of tackles to drive through the heart of the Leyland defence to score.

There was time for one more score in the first half and arguably the best of the afternoon. Whittles made the first break before offloading to Drake who managed to squeeze an offload,  despite being hounded by three tacklers, to Sharrocks who ran 60 metres away from the despairing tap tackles of the Leyland defence. Coop added the extra two.

The game became a closer contest in the second half as Boro were reduced to 12 men for 10 minutes at the start after Keegan laid a high tackle on his opposite number. 

After a period of Leyland pressure, Littleborough made good territory into the Leyland 22 for the ball to worked down the blind side. Superior numbers meant that Whittles had an easy stroll in for his second and his ninth of the season.

The last score of the afternoon saw Coop add to his personal tally with a simple run in after Sharrocks had powered through a gap on half way. His simple offload gave Coop one of the easiest scores the full back will have all season to cap a a dogged but impressive victory for Littleborough.