After two previous failed attempts, Moor finally played their league game against Thornton Cleveleys and instead of having to travel to the Fylde coast, the game was played at Green Lane, with the reverse fixture being cancelled due to the lack of any further free Saturdays in the season. For those watching it was certainly worth waiting for, played at a high tempo with scores galore and the lead changing on no less than eight occasions. Unfortunately for Moor, the result did not go their way, with the game slipping out of their grasp in the last ten minutes.

Moor kicked off and from the start, both sides were intent on moving the ball at every opportunity. The visitors opened the scoring within the first ten minutes with two penalty goals, but Moor were soon into their stride shortly afterwards when they pushed the opposition pack backwards at two scrums and from the second, they set up a series of drives allowing loose-head prop James Brennan to score their opening try, converted by fly-half Elliot Mepham. This lead was further extended at the end of the first quarter when a lineout was won, setting up another drive and resulting in an unconverted try for tight-head prop Dan Goodwin. Thornton came straight back from the restart with their first converted try of the afternoon and followed it up with another penalty goal. A few minutes later, the game swung back in Moor’s favour when left-winger Dylan Starkie put in a speculative kick ahead and won the chase, aided by a fortunate bounce, to collect and score between the posts, converted by Mepham. In injury time at the break, the visitors forced the home side into conceding a drop-out from behind their try line and this was collected on the full to set up a series of rucks, ending up with an unconverted try to retake the lead. Any thought that this would be the last act of the half was soon dispelled as Moor immediately went on the attack and earned themselves a penalty some 10 metres short of the Thornton line. This was quickly taken by scrum-half Martin Shelley, catching the opposition off-guard, and he dummied his way over for a bonus-point try, again converted by Mepham, bringing a hectic close to proceedings at the interval and a narrow 26-21 lead for Moor.

From the restart, the opposition kept Moor pinned down and had soon retaken the lead when they managed to turn the ball over and set up a try in the corner, which was excellently converted from the touchline. The game was still being played at an unusually fast rate, which inevitably led to errors by both sides and for frequent stoppages due to minor injuries. One such stoppage resulted in a yellow card for a Moor player as he was adjudged to have made a high tackle, but this reversal only seemed to spur them on as they then scored two tries whilst being a man down. The first came from the Thornton penalty lineout following the sin-binning, which was won by Moor and the ball was then passed between both forwards and backs and eventually it found its way to left-winger David Adebo, who rounded the cover and sprinted in from the halfway line to score. The second was five minutes later when Moor, having to defend a sustained attack from the visitors, broke out of their 22, allowing centre Sam Firth to beat the defence and race in from his own 10-metre line to score next to the uprights, giving Mepham a comfortable conversion. This ten-point lead was immediately reduced by Thornton when they turned the ball over following the kick-off and scored in the corner, which was again superbly converted. Shortly

after returning to a full squad, Moor again stretched their lead when another lineout, following a penalty kick to touch, was won, allowing their forwards to set up a series of drives and when the ball was released to the backs, full-back Josh Tate joined the line at pace to score under the crossbar, converted by Mepham. With less than a quarter of the match to go, it was now looking as if Moor would hold on to this lead but within the final ten minutes, this optimism was dashed as Thornton scored three converted tries without reply. Throughout the game, the visitors had been the better in the loose play and although both sets of players were now tiring after the frenetic end-to-end action, it was Thornton who still maintained the edge and they pushed home this advantage by keeping the ball amongst their forwards, to set up two scores from close range following repeated rucks, sucking in the Moor defence. The second of these tries narrowly re-took the lead but it still gave Moor hope that they might yet come away victorious. Deep into injury time and with Moor on the attack in their opponent's territory, they were guilty of not adequately protecting the ball in a ruck, allowing it to squirt out into open play. This was pounced on immediately by a Thornton player who then ran to just short of the Moor line before being brought down, but the referee adjudged this to have been done illegally and awarded a penalty try and bringing the game to an end, 56-45 in favour of the visitors. This final score was a bitter blow for Moor as they had hoped in the closing stages that even if they lost the game, they might still get a losing bonus-point, which on the balance of the game, they certainly deserved.

Moor do not have a game next Saturday, but continue their league campaign on Saturday 2nd April with a home game against Congleton, k.o. 2:15 p.m.

David Todd