Rugby league: Mayfield drawn at home in fourth round of the Challenge Cup

The Mayfield team pictured after victory against Cornwall in the second round

The draw for the fourth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup was made on Wednesday at Millom ARLFC, and at last the draw favoured Mayfield. For the first time in this year's competition Mayfield were drawn at home. Their opponents will be Championship side Newcastle Thunder. This will be Mayfields first time in the fourth round and they will be pulling out all the stops.

Newcastle play in the Championship which for the novice is the division below Super League, so this makes Mayfield  massive underdogs. However, Thunder have played five games with just one win and one draw to their credit with a minus 116 points difference in the table so there must be at least a glimmer of hope for the Rochdale community club. Coaches Butterworth and Wood are just happy to have a home draw at last. Butterworth said: "We will be given no chance whatsoever in this game but we will go out and give it our all. You never know we may just surprise some people. Whatever happens we just want to pack the place to the rafters and give the rugby fans in Rochdale a day to remember and be proud of as we go out and try to create history once again."

Club chairman Neil Ramsden reiterated these thoughts but he added: "We are obviously the underdogs here in a big way, but what we have that Newcastle don't is our fan base. We know that our stadium will be absolutely packed come game day, the support we had away at Leigh Miners last week proves that, and once those fans start it will pick the team up and carry them forward. To say we are confident may be going a little too far but we know beyond doubt that we will give a good account of ourselves and the National Conference League that we represent."

The fourth round ties will be played Saturday 1 or Sunday 2 April.