Poor Moor run ends in derby victory
HEATON Moor hosted local rivals Marple looking to end a poor run of six successive defeats for what had become a must-win game.
Coach Steve Nicholas had the luxury of naming his strongest side of the season with only back rows Tom Ireland and Jim Hine missing from the squad.
The visitors had started the season with six wins from nine outings and were clear favourites going into the game.
However, proceedings commenced with the home side confidently putting together multiple phases and showing a patience which had been clearly lacking in earlier outings, ensuring a constant supply of pressure inside the Marple 22.
On 14 minutes a line out was driven on by the pack where Jack Pipe, in his first outing of the season, gleefully burrowed his way to the line for a try which was converted by Mark Edwards.
Marple were reduced to 14 men on 14 minutes after one of their forwards earned himself a yellow card after a high tackle on centre Terry Chatterton.
It was all the encouragement the Moor men needed as they tried to make the extra man pay dividends, forcing the visitors back into their 22 for the entirety of the ten minutes they were reduced to 14 but were left with a solitary Edwards penalty to show for their endeavours due to a combination of stoic defence and an absolute butchering of two gilt edged chances.
Once Marple were back up to their full complement they then lost two players to injury but, with just one substitute, were forced to play the rest of the game a man short.
The next score came on 26 minutes after a great turnover from Ben Jones saw the ball fed to the pacy Matt Hughes who created the space and moved the ball left where a great finish by Remi Akinbode saw Moor register their second try of the day in the corner. The quality of the try was matched by the quality of the conversion by Mark Edwards whose kicking game had been sorely missed in earlier games.
For the first time this season the home side side started to dominate the opposition as a constant supply of quality line out and scrum posession allowed the backs to feast. From one such patient build up, fullback Hughes cut the line for an excellent finish, again converted by Edwards that saw Moor go into the break 24 points up.
After only three minutes of the second half, Moor collected their first try bonus point of the season after another Ben Jones turnover saw Chris Ogden Smith take the ball on before releasing wing Chris Sutton who finished in the corner. Another touch line conversion from Mark Edwards saw the score line extended to 31-0.
With the stage then set for Moor to run riot Marple tore up the script reducing the deficit 31-7 after a short range effort from the pack.
As the half wore on, Remi Akinbode finished in the corner with aplomb with Edwards agonisingly missing out on a full house of conversions.
On 62 minutes Marple again forced their way over for another converted try only for the referee to bizarrely call time on a game where the scoreline was 31-14.
Despite the unsatisfactory finish five precious points was what really mattered, allied to the fact Moor looked a very capable side with an almost full strength squad to select from.