Golborne Parkside 40 - 36 Rochdale Mayfield

In an entertaining game the young green and gold side grabbed a last gasp try to upset the form books and go through to the Semi Final next Saturday with Leigh Miners their next opponents.

The fact that the Golborners pulled off the victory with a completion rate of only 50% makes the performance even more remarkable and provided the partisan crowd with an end to end encounter in a thrill a minute game.

The Rochdale outfit roared into an early 16-2 lead and it looked grim for the Golborne team but all the opponents points came from errors and when the nerves and the occasion was dealt with, it was Parkside who started to dominate the game with slick handling and bone crunching defence and by half time, went into the sheds with a 2 point advantage at 22-20.

Both defences struggled to cope with the sweeping attacking plays on offer from both teams, the second forty continued in the same style but it was the Green and Gold’s of Golborne that deservedly stole the show with young winger Jimmy Tunstall grabbing a hatrick and having one seemingly good try disallowed.

Debutant, 19 year old stand off, James Muir got a try with his first involvement when he showed the dummy and ghosted in after just coming off the bench to replace Leon Davy. The pack of forwards from Golborne dominated the Mayfield counterparts and with Parkside’s Captain Stuart Arkwright controlling the ruck for long periods, also getting on the score sheet with a brace of four pointers and some sublime touch line conversions.

The Rochdale Mayfield team also contributed to the occasion with some deft handling and bell ringing tackle’s, they had pace and power out wide but conceded too many penalties with poor discipline, both teams could not find the killer punch as went at it hammer and tongue and Mayfield must have thought they had just about done enough when M.Calland crossed for a try following another cheap turnover from Golborne which edged his side out to a two point lead with 5 minutes remaining.

But the determination, belief and character of the Golborne boys was tremendous, they proceeded to pile on the pressure with wave after wave of attacks until the Mayfield defence just wilted under the pressure, and it was captain marvel Stuart Arkwright who exploited the tired bodies at the ruck and crashed over from the dummy half to cement their place in the Semi’s.

For the neutral spectator it must have been a real thrilling encounter as the teams exchanged score after score in a 76 point try fest. Both teams would be happy with their performance with the ball but neither will be satisfied with the inept defensive displays.

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There were massive performances by all the players on show but new boy Steve Pownall was the pick of the forwards with some probing drives and murderous defence with The Kelly brothers and robust Anthony Irvine not far behind and you could have selected any of the back line for match honours but it was the Golborne Parkside skipper Arkwright, who collected the Man Of Match award as the green and gold march on towards a semi final showdown next week.