Mayfield 36 – 22 Leigh Miners

James Shaw, Mayfield 36 – 22 Leigh Miners

Mayfield's best crowd of the season were treated to a great game of rugby on sat as Mayfield secured fourth spot with a hard fought victory over in form Miners.

The visitors started like the proverbial house on fire as Sam Butterworth's kick off went straight into touch, they came straight at Mayfield and with only 90 seconds on the clock they crossed for the first try out wide.

From the restart Butterworth again put the ball straight out, certainly not the best start to a game.

Miners must have had a sense that Mayfield were going to kick into gear though as they opted to take the two rather than push for a try after a late challenge from Tala was penalised.

Both sides played some good early rugby with Butterworth, Lewis Sheridan and 16-year-old Jordan Parr on his debut making good ground.

When a seemingly innocuous Butterworth kick was not dealt with by the Miner's defence Liam Whalley pounced on it and forced his way over the line in the corner, Butterworth converted to level the scores.

Miners then threw everything at Mayfield and to be fair Mayfield struggled to cope as the six and seven took control of the game.

They scored two more tries to take an 18 – 6 lead and looked like the champion side they are, playing at a blistering pace with their quality half backs running the show.

Butterworth had other ideas though and his short kick off was regathered by Whalley who worked the ball down field where Callum Ogden supplied a great pass to Aidan Gleeson who crashed over to cut the defecit. Butterworth converted.

Miners fought hard to maintain their dominance but Mayfield were having none of it. Hard running from the forwards in particular James Shaw, Nick Hargreaves and Callum Marriott began to wear the Miners' defence down.

With gaps appearing Butterworth stepped up to the mark and a brilliantly timed kick through was well read by Lewis Sheridan and he managed to cut through the line to touch the ball down. Butterworth added the conversion to level the scores.

Mayfield finished the half on high again pressing the Miners' line and were unlucky not to take the lead before the break.

The half time break seemed to disrupt the Mayfield flow and they struggled to regain their composure.

Early in the second half both sides were fighting to get the upper hand and when Leigh broke from a scrum on the Mayfield twenty to grab an unconverted try they looked like they could have been taking control again.

However, Lee Registe, Zac Baker and Paul Brearley were outstanding doing the Mayfield hard work when it was really needed.

Hargreaves showed a lot of strength and determination as he managed to regather Butterworth's restart and that was the catalyst his side needed as Butterworth again put Lewis Sheridan in to give Mayfield the lead for the first time in the game.

Mayfield never looked back from this point and a tiring Miners side just couldn’t match the Mayfield spirit.

Zac Hartley crashed onto a ball in his own half bust two tackles and sprinted in under the sticks. Hartley again converting.

A good all round performance from the young Mayfield outfit, they finished the much stronger, more confident team and now look forward to next week’s home game against Wath Brow in the play-off first round.

Match sponsors Dave Marcroft and Ace Electrical gave the man-of-the-match award to Lewis Sheridan while the Leigh coaching staff opted for Rhys Carruth.