Soap Slip to Defeat on The Road Again

“The effort of the lads was awesome. To play for over an hour with a man down and still be in the game till the death shows the spirit of these boys” Jimmy Williams

Crosfields slipped to their third defeat in four games and second on the road to underline how tough life in division two is. A sending off 22 minutes in to a hard fought opening period didn't help the cause as Chris Hull's robust challenge was deemed a high shot with the referee dishing out a straight red card.

This galvanised the hosts who scored two quick fire tries to race in to a 10 point lead and compound Crosfields misery on what seemed a very harsh dismissal. There was no surrender though and second rower Jordan Williams crossed off a Jack Reid flat ball on the stroke of half time to narrow the gap to four points following Reid's successful conversion.

Dewsbury Moor started the second period strongest and looked to have taken the game away from Crosfields as two more tries within 5 minutes of the restart pushed the hosts in to what proved to be an unassailable lead.

Back came Crosfields, showing an impressive level of determination to close the gap. On 48 minutes a good Phil Brazendale drive laid the platform for Jordan Williams who managed to spin in the tackle and find the supporting John Whittaker to crash over - the conversion was missed.

Sustained pressure from Crosfields wore down Moor and quick hands and a brilliant Tyler Whittaker offload led to Nathan Taylor strolling in at the corner to reduce the deficit to a converted try with 25 minutes to play.

Unfortunately that was to be as good as it got for the Soap as Dewsbury's extra man made the difference and they held their line extremely well to ensure no more tries were conceded. The home team opting to extend their lead with 2 late penalties rather than electing to have ball in hand in good field position plus numerical advantage as first Tom Millington was sin binned for a professional foul and next Jordan Williams was shown a straight red for dissent, demonstrated the defensive effort the visitors put in.

Final score Dewsbury Moor 26 Crosfields 16 with Hayden James picking up his 3rd man of the match of the season ably supported by Williams, Brazendale and Tom Brown who all led from the front

Updated 01:45 - 31 Aug 2019 by Paul Arnison