Rugby league: Mayfield preview

Rochdale Mayfield club crest

After the cancellation last Saturday (22 July) of the St Pats game, Mayfield are back in action on Saturday 29 July with a trip to face York Acorn.

Acorn had a poor start to the season but have had a resurgence of late, winning four of their last six games and pushing Hunslet all the way before going down by a try. Mayfield have won three and lost three in that same period after their fantastic start. This has seen them slip to fourth in the table, albeit with two games in hand.

Coaches Sam Butterworth and Steve Wood are hoping that last week's layoff will have seen some of their injured players get back to fitness. The season so far has taken its toll on the players with some games seeing Mayfield playing with up to nine players unavailable but Butterworth is confident his squad will be strong and fully fit. Acorn are only one place below Mayfield and are pushing for a play-off place so they will be taking no prisoners on Saturday afternoon as they take to the field. Mayfield were looking at a top two finish before their mid season blip and they will be looking to reignite that push in York today.

Butterworth, looking at the season so far said: "If you want to be the best you have to beat the best. We have done that, away at Wath Brow and home to Hunslet. But that's not good enough you also have to beat the mid table teams, you cant ease up for a second at this level were everyone has the potential to pull off the win. We have fallen foul of that more than once this season and I don't want to see that happen again. We are going to York not just to compete, we are going to win, that's who we are and that's what we want to do this weekend." 

Supporters are reminded that this game kicks off at the later time of 3pm due to being screened on the Our League app.

Meanwhile in the NWML Division 2, it is third from the top against third from the bottom at the Mayfield Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon as Mayfield entertain Newton Storm. This game has all the makings of a classic as Newton arrive after just edging out Roose last week in a 68 point thriller while Mayfield narrowly missed out at Golborne after an absolute belter of a game. The last three games for Mayfield have seen some outstanding performances and coach Andy Reid will be looking for more of the same from his lads knowing that if they perform as they have been doing then they should take the points.

The Mayfield Ladies are also in action this weekend, at home to North Wales Crusaders on Sunday afternoon (30 July). Like Mayfield, Crusaders are a new side this season and have won more games than they've lost. Mayfield are hoping to get back on track after being handed a lesson last week by Leigh Miners. There were some bright moments in the game but Miners were better organised and well drilled in both defence and attack. This week Mayfield will have learned from that and put this into practice on the pitch.

Saturday 29 July 2023

• NCL Premier Division: York Acorn v Mayfield, kick-off 3pm
• NWML Division 2: Mayfield v Newton Storm, kick-off 2.30pm

Sunday 30 July 2023

• Ladies: Mayfield Women v North Wales Crusaders, kick off 2pm