Rochdale Mayfield A 54 Woolston Rovers A 6

WOOLSTON Rovers A gave a very spirited performance despite going down to an away defeat at the hands of Rochdale Mayfield A on Saturday afternoon in the NWML Division Two.

Rovers suffered the early loss of prop forward Lewis Hoarty, who was stretchered off with a head injury and when his replacement John Welch was sin-binned five minutes later it gave the home side an opportunity to take control.

They managed to build up an 18-6 interval advantage with Rovers' points coming from an interception try by stand off Dominic Ball that was converted by scrum half Jason Rutter.

This was a little harsh on Rovers, who had ample opportunities to add more points but they were unable to break through the resolute Mayfield defence.

Further injuries to the Rovers side meant that they had used all of their substitutes by half time and this meant that they were unable to rotate the players in the second half with Mayfield exploiting the tiring Rovers defence to run in several tries to complete a 54-6 victory.

Best for Rovers was prop forward Dan Fearnley who put in a superb eighty-minute stint in the front row.

Rovers A entertain Ashton Bears A on Saturday in the NWML Trophy preliminary round.

Kick off is 2.30pm at Monks Sports Club.

Rovers A: Shane Duffy, Richard Bolton, Carl Litherland, Josh Woods, Jordan Millington, Dominic Ball, Jason Rutter, Dan Fearnley, Martin Ball, Lewis Hoarty, Danny Brown, Cain Hillen, James Dudley.

Subs: Gareth Dowson, Matt Hopwood, John Welch, Sam Wood.