Moor’s lead slips away as LSH nick win

HEATON Moor welcomed Liverpool St Helens to Green Lane where a late comeback from the visitors earned them a slender victory.

Both sides were well below their full perceived strength with Moor giving a debut to club chairman Mark Ruby who would take his place in a reshuffled front row.

It was good to see former Moor No 8 James Salter back at Green Lane. for the visitors

In an excellent opening stanza, both sides attempted to stamp their authority on the game through their forwards.

However, the visitors’ complete refusal to clear their lines through use of the boot would see them ultimately surrender points to the home side.

The opening score of the day though did go to Moor on 15 minutes through a well struck Mike Ingham penalty from out on the right but the three points were a measly return for what should have been a minimum of five and possibly seven.

From the restart, LSH made their first foray into Moor territory where they scored an unconverted try.

Moor did eventually open their try account after a period of play within the LSH 22 which saw the visitors refuse to kick the ball clear when they had ample opportunity to do so.

It eventually led to the ball being turned over which brought a chorus of offside shouts from the LSH bench, promptly ignored by referee Andrew Lord, and Moor fullback Chris Ogden Smith split the LSH defence in two with a scything run that was further taken on by Ben Jones. He was stopped a yard short only for David Adebo to pick up the pieces by diving over the line for seven points to Moor.

The home side then extended the lead after a penalty for a high tackle was kicked to the corner where an excellent Danny Ireland throw was taken by Will Pacey which saw the ball fed to No 8 Ben Jones who was loitering with intent in the midfield that saw the Moor pack form scrum like to drive to within a yard of the line only for the LSH pack to bring the maul down for a penalty try.

Moor being Moor then immediately allowed the visitors back in to the game with a good break from the fullback who scored a fine individual try in the right hand corner to see the half time score at 17-13 to Moor.

The second half started well for Moor after an LSH player was sent off for a second yellow card after inhibiting scrum-half Mike Ingham from taking a quick penalty.

The penalty was then kicked in to touch where from the lineout David Adebo joined the line to create an overlap from which he made a break, bursting through one tackle to score his second try which was converted by Mike Ingham.

With Moor now in the box seat, things were looking good when from the restart the was ball passed to Adebo on the right, where he cut inside and made another surging run to take play to within five metres of the LSH line where the ball was then recycled for wing Alex Tupou to score a fine try converted by Ingham – 31-13.

Still over half-hour to play which allowed coach Mark Edwards to reshuffle the deck by taking off second row Will Pacey which saw Kingsley removed from the backline and moved in to the second row.

LSH then started with their plan of how to turn the game and ultimately the result around by pulling a try back from a catch and drive lineout to reduce the deficit to 31-18 which was then further reduced to 31-25 after Mark Ruby was sin binned, which saw the LSH pack score a try that was again converted.

The game for Moor was finally up with five minutes to go after the visitors pack again went route one to score another converted try to finally take a one-point lead they never surrendered with the final score 31-32 to LSH.