Sheridan’s five star showing
IT was a tale of two halves at Mayfield Sports Centre on Saturday as the home side eventually ran out comfortable winners against Cumbrian rivals Egremont Rangers.
Mayfield had the perfect start as Sam Butterworth managed to find touch with the kick off and from the scrum his side worked the left channel, creating space for Paul Brearley to dummy his way over in the first set to give his side a 4-0 lead.
Mayfield were unlucky not to extend the lead two minutes later after several players just failed to ground Butterworth’s kick through.
Egremont stiffened up their defence to snuff out the threat posed by the Mayfield forwards but it was somewhat against the run of play that they managed to level the scores when their strong centre squeezed over out wide.
Butterworth was involved again after ten minutes as his long ball found the livewire Jack Sampson who broke through and found Lewis Sheridan in support with a great pass. Sheridan grounded the ball by the sticks and Chris Hough duly slotted over the conversion.
The conditions began to worsen and with driving rain the mistakes crept in from both sides, with plenty of dropped ball costing the teams dearly as they traded scores. Sheridan’s second came as he picked up a dropped ball with Hough again converting.
With five minutes to go of the first half Egremont were having their best spell of the game and only stern defence from Cameron Connelly and Hough kept them out.
It took another dropped ball, on the first tackle, to unlock the ranks and the big Egremont centre went in for his second.
With a minute to go, the visitors took the lead after a neat kick over was collected by the winger who touched down in the corner for a converted try.
Half time came at just the right time for Mayfield who were in danger of losing their way at this point. Egremont sensed an upset and remained on the field for the interval.
Matt Calland took his team to the dressing room where he pointed out their frailties and the need to regain the upper hand with the visitors leading 16-18.
The second half saw old stager Hough organise the side. His contribution, especially in defence was superb. Time and again he led the way with youngsters Jack Rush, Callum Ogden, Cameron Conelly and Zac Baker benefiting from his enthusiasm. Some wag in the crowd was heard to comment ‘look at Houghy, he’s got injuries older than those four.’
With the defence scrambling to keep out the Cumbrian threat, Mayfield then broke upfield where a penalty allowed Dec Sheridan the opportunity to get on the score sheet. It was converted by Hough and Mayfield had regained the lead, one they never looked like losing again.
The transformation was massive as they turned on the class. Rhys Carruth, Rush and Liam Whalley repelled any thoughts the visitors had of getting back into the game.
When Dec Sheridan put in a great little kick, brother Lewis was on hand to hack on and follow up to complete his hat-trick.
This was soon followed by the brothers again combining as Dec threw a perfectly timed pass to Lewis who happily accepted as he touched down for his fourth. Hough converted both and the game was effectively sealed at 34-18.
A great break from Baker enabled Paul Brearley to grab his second before a never say die attitude saw Egremont camped on the Mayfield line where they managed to force an error and grab their only second half score.
Lewis Sheridan then showed the importance of backing up your players as he followed the impressive Carruth on a break and grabbed his fifth try of the game, converted by Baker.
The second half performance made up for the error strewn first, which was admittedly down to the weather. It was vintage Mayfield.
Sam Butterworth and Chris Hough were outstanding and Seta Tala had his best game of the season, but the contribution from the youngsters, all products of the Mustangs youth section was fantastic. The man of the match award was probably the easiest one of the season – you just couldn’t overlook the five star five-try performance of Lewis Sheridan.