Drighlington 20 Crosfields 36

IAN Boden says his Crosfields side avoided “a banana skin” as they racked up their fifth victory in a row.

Saturday’s win at Drighlington kept Soap in fourth place in National Conference League Division Two as Hayden James and Luke Walker both crossed twice.

Nathan Taylor, Brad Stanway and Jack Reid, who also kicked four goals, completed the scoring as the Hood Lane side continued their good form.

“I saw this as a potential banana skin to our progress,” Boden said.

“The lads stuck to our game plan and the substitutions were decisive and made an impact.

“We host Hunslet Warriors next week and I hope we can reproduce the entertainment we displayed on Saturday."

The hosts took an early lead through Jake Dearden’s try, but Soap quickly hit back to take control of proceedings.

Reid dummied through the defence to touch down between the posts before James backed up Joe Clarke’s break to open his account for the afternoon.

Hooker James was also on hand to take a pass from Matty Barber and sprint home shortly afterwards to give his side a 16-4 lead.

However, Drighlington finished the first half well and took advantage of a sloppy opening from the visitors, with a brace tries closing the gap to just two points at the break.

Soap were not flustered after the interval, though, and Walker went through a gap after a superb move involving James, Tom Brown, Tom Millington and Mitch McJay.

Walker’s second try, assisted by John Whittaker, put the game out of the hosts’ reach and it was his break led to Stanway taking advantage of an overlap to score.

Before that, Taylor produced an acrobatic finish to plant the ball down in the corner.

The hosts had the final say with a try on the final whistle, but it could not take the shine off another impressive Soap performance.

Crosfields welcome Hunslet Warriors to Hood Lane on Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.

Crosfields: John Whittaker; Dan Reid, Matt Lomax, Luke Walker, Nathan Taylor; Jack Reid, Brad Stanway; Tom Millington, Hayden James, Tom Brown, Jordan Williams, Mitch McJay, Joe Clarke. Subs: Phil Brazendale, Kane Ditchfield, Matt Mahoney, Matty Barber.