Castleford Lock Lane 20 – 22 Mayfield

A relieved Mayfield travelled back to Rochdale with two points in the bag on Saturday after a thrilling game of rugby league. Their opponents, Lock Lane, were favourites on the day having only dropped one point all season.

Both teams started strongly with Lane pressing the Mayfield line from the off and but for a superb tackle from Carl Abraham it could have been a different story.

Si Moore and Matty Moores powered their way up the middle of the pitch where a flowing cross field move involving Taurean Sheehan and Paul Brearley saw Sammy Sampson get a great pass out to Rob Kershaw who forced his way over in the corner; Aidy Gleeson added the extras with a superb touch line conversion.

Mayfield scored again after Si Moore proved too hot to handle bringing in Todd O’Brien, who in turn found Jack Sampson who showed he had too much class for the defenders with some neat footwork as he grabbed the score. Gleeson again converted.

The next twenty minutes were all Lock Lane’s as some poor Mayfield play allowed them to score three unanswered tries to take a 16 – 12 lead into half time.

This could easily have gone the way of last week's game with Mayfield’s errors gifting the points to the opposition but the half time team talk roused Mayfield and within two minutes of the restart a set play from O’Brien saw Aidy Gleeson power onto the pass and go right over the top of two tacklers for a try he converted himself to reclaim the lead.

The game went end to end and was a fantastic spectacle for the crowd, with both teams struggling for domination.

As Mayfield camped on the Lane twenty a stray pass was intercepted and Lane capitalised and they took the lead 20 – 18.

A couple of weeks ago Mayfield would have accepted this and conceded defeat, but not this week, not in this mood. The team deserve a lot of credit for the way they dug deep and never gave up in the face of adversity. Abraham, Moore, Sammy Sampson and Ben Butterworth were immense in the tackle running themselves into the ground. Paul Brearley again showed some touches of class and it was one of these moments that gave his side the winning try as his long ball found Rob Kershaw on the wing and he showed he had too much power and pace for the Lock Lane defence as he squeezed over for a well taken second try.

The home side were not finished though and the game finished much as it had started with a try saving tackle on the Mayfield line, this time from Jack Sampson.

Game over and the Mayfield players and travelling supporters breathed a huge sigh of relief.

This was a massive effort from the Mayfield side as each and every player gave everything in order to gain the win. Again there were great performances from O’Brien, Brearley, Gleeson and Jack Ashworth but the pick of the side were Paul Brearley, Si Moore and Taurean Sheehan.

Mayfield team: Jack Sampson, John Foy, Carl Abraham, Sammy Sampson, Rob Kershaw, Paul Brearley, Tarean Sheehan, Aiden Gleeson, Todd O'Brien, Matty Moores, Ben Butterworth, Gaz Sharrocks, Si Moore, Ben simpson, Ieuan Higgs, Lee Bradley, Jack Ashworth.