Wath Brow 26 – 24 Mayfield

Photo: Aidan Gleeson Snr

Gaz Ellison, Wath Brow 26 – 24 Mayfield

It was definitely a case of two points thrown away in Cumbria for Mayfield on Saturday.

Wath Brow must have must have been left looking to the heavens after snatching this victory with five minutes to go of a game that should have been over after twenty minutes of the second half.

Mayfield started brightly with a smart touch finding kick from the kick off and for the first ten minutes they pummelled the home side line. With Eric Johnson Gaz Ellison and Joe Quanici making their presence felt right from the off.

The Cumbrians defence was superb and in the end it was probably Mayfield's inability to capitalise on that early pressure that cost them the game.

It took until the twenty seventh minute before the anybody bothered the scorer and it was the Wath Brow scrum half who broke the dead lock against the run of play with a deft chip over the Mayfield defence which he managed to gather and touch down under the sticks for a converted try.

It took only minutes for Mayfield to respond as Sam Butterworth managed to reclaim the kick off and was then awarded a penalty for a high shot.

In an American football type substitution Matt Calland brought Aidan Gleeson on for a set play and this paid dividends as Gleeson crashed through the defensive line. Butterworth converted to level the scores.

Mayfield grew in confidence and started spreading the ball wide with some brilliant ball handling from Todd O’Brien and Paul Brearley, with Brearley and Butterworth calling the shots.

With 45 minutes on the clock, and on the last tackle, Sam Butterworth followed up a Gleeson kick to give his side the lead as he converted his own try.

The start of the second half saw Mayfield playing some great rugby and within minutes Butterworth showed his class as he put Lewis Sheridan over for a try which he then converted.

Wath Brow looked down and out at this stage as Mayfield threw the ball about at will.

Liam Whalley was unlucky not to add to the score when he was held up over the line.

Brow responded well as they drove the ball out to the twenty and put in a game changing 40/20.

In the next set the Mayfield defence just crumbled as the Brow stand off went through four would be tacklers to score.

Within a couple of minutes the winger had gone over in the corner to cut the Mayfield lead even further.

From the restart Paul Brearley regathered the ball brilliantly and managed to get Lewis Sheridan in for his second. 

The Mayfield defence had gone to pieces with no structure and poor communication.

Credit must be given to Wath Brow for the way they responded, they picked up the pace and attacked the Mayfield line. They were aided by the number of penalties that crept into the game giving them repeat sets in the Mayfield half on numerous occasions. In the last ten minutes they converted this possession into points with two converted tries, one from a refereeing decision that stumped everyone, including the lineswoman, but put Wath Brow on the Mayfield line with six tackles.

There were undoubtedly some questionable decisions from the man in the middle, many of them seemingly against Mayfield but they should have put this game to bed.

At 6 – 18 they were by far the better side and Wath Brow looked down and out but the concentration went, allowing them back into the game and they never looked back.

Mayfield tried hard at the end and the referee played around eight minutes of added time but they couldn’t make the breakthrough they needed.

Dave Wood continued his improvement with a great performance while Eric Johnson and Joe Quanici were outstanding, but Paul Brearley was awarded the man-of-the-match by the Wath Brow coaching staff.

Mayfield Team: Lewis Sheridan, Komai Nualamatua, Dave Wood, Matt Calland, Rob Kershaw, Paul Brearley, Sam Butterworth, Gaz Ellison, Eric Johnson, Jake Boardman, Ben Butterworth, Liam Whalley, Joe Quanici, Aidan Gleeson, Declan Sheridan, Todd O’brien, Luke Sampson.