CROSFIELDS maintained third place in National Conference League Division One thanks to their ‘derby’ win at Woolston Rovers on Saturday.

Soap ran out 40-24 victors but did not have everything their own way in a fiercely but fairly contested game.

In fact, after leading 24-0 midway through the first half Rovers had cut the arrears to six points by half-time.

But Soap acted quickly in the second half to resume full control and never looked back.

Both sides had a player sent off for alleged head butts late on – Aaron Holliday for Crosfields and then Ryan Brown for Woolston – but the outcome was settled by then.

Neither side play again until August 30.

“We worked hard leading up to this game, and we deserved the win,” said Crosfields head coach Rob Campbell.

“It was always a concern missing Tom Millington and then another prop Tom Brown after five minutes with a nasty gash on his chin after an accidental clash of heads, but Elliot Liku and Babs (Matthew Barber) put in a double shift today and were awesome along with a hard-working back row.

“We had three tries disallowed for forward passes so the score could have been higher.

“We had a game plan, we stuck to it and it worked.

“It was great to see a healthy touchline as well - we play better with more spectators, we up our game.”

Rovers head coach Liam Lawton said: “We were our own worst enemy with some unforced errors that allowed Crosfields to build up a healthy lead but then in the last 10 minutes of the first half we started to play as we know we can and narrowed the gap.

“Half-time came at the wrong time for us and then after the break Soap scored a couple of early tries that put the game out of our reach.

“I cannot fault the effort of the lads as they kept going for the full 80 minutes but you have to give credit to Crosfields who were very good and deserved to get the win.”

Soap opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Ben Steele rounded the cover to go between the posts.

Eight minutes later a high kick by Stanway bounced awkwardly and he was able to regather to go over.

Crosfields extended their advantage when Luke Walker linked into the line and then six minutes later Alex Clutterbuck raced 80 metres to cross, and Brad Stanway converted all four tries.

On the half-hour Rovers got on the scoreboard when James Tarpey linked into the line.

Then a mistake by Soap close to their own line was pounced on as Harry Files crossed.

Two minutes before the break Brown put Tarpey over and Craig Lawton added his third conversion.

Ben Lomas intercepted a Rovers pass and raced 90 metres to score two minutes into the new half.

Walker then stepped round the Rovers defence to cross at the side of the posts.

Crosfields made sure there would be no comeback for Rovers when Walker once again linked into the line to complete his hat-trick wide out.

After Holliday’s dismissal Rovers made the extra man advantage pay as Rhys Brindley completed the scoring on his NCL debut.