Potentially serious injuries to Greg Wilby and Ben Gledhill marred a thoroughly professional performance that saw Shaw Cross Sharks through to the next round of the NCL Challenge Cup at the expense of Crosfields.

Gledhill was withdrawn with, what seemed to be at the time, a serious head injury before Wilby had to be withdrawn with what seemed like a knee injury.

The first half was sluggish from the home side with a lot of their creative spark, which has served them well in recent weeks, lacking. The game was congested in the middle of the pitch and both teams became a man light early. Wilby reacted with a punch to an elbow thrown by Phil Brazendale which saw both players receive a yellow card. The game was barely seven minutes old.

However seven minutes later the Sharks were on the board as Jordan Anderson capitalised on a handling error from the Crosfields prop and managed to latch on to the loose ball and sprint home for the score. Danny Flowers missed the goal kick but made amends later in the game with a try of his own.

Brandan French added a goal kick right on the stroke of half time, after the visitors were penalised for a high tackle, to bring a poor first half to a close.

Captain Andrew Fawkes had some strong words for the team at half time: "We just needed to up our game." He said: "We were treating it like a training match. We thought the game was won before we'd even touched the ball."

The second half performance was much more polished and the difference in quality began to show as Brett Turner's men blew away their counterparts who sit two divisions below them.

Danny Flowers stumbled home in the far corner to add to the Shaw Cross lead, the kick was again missed.

The game yet again became congested in the middle of the field with neither team able to give the ball any kind of width. Matthew Byatt, Brandan Franch and Fawkes all marshalled the centre well but were left frustrated they could not find their usual slick rhythm

Anderson got his second try of the game just after the hour mark which capped off a superb flowing move and signalled the first of three Sharks' tries in seven minutes.

Quick, sharp and precise offloads set Anderson free down the middle and he finished with aplomb. Casey Johnson added the goal kick to give the Sharks a 16 point lead.

just three minutes later the home side went in again. A high kick from Flowers was contested by Robbie Byatt whom won the jump ball at the Crosfields five meter line and went in on the left, once again Johnson successfully converted from a difficult angle.

Jack Gledhill added the gloss to a much improved second half showing as he made the visitors pay for being too narrow and allowing him to get outside and finish superbly.

The head coach rotated the squad and feels that played a key part in the pedestrian start: "With next week in mind we left four or five of the players out." he said: "I think we were just a bit disjointed from the start."

Turner said that he is yet to know the full extent of Wilby and Gledhill's injuries but is hopeful they will be fit for a huge away game against Kells next weekend.