Little Hulton still have a shot of reaching the playoffs in the North West Men’s Division 4 League after beating Manchester Rangers in a hard-fought 26-20 win.
The Reds have just three games left this season, taking on Westhoughton Lions away on 20 August, then Rochdale Cobras at home on 10 September, before the final game of the season at Cadishead Rhinos on 24 September.
They sit in fifth place with 16 points, just two behind Rochdale.
There were fears the Manchester Rangers would overcome Little Hulton after the Reds lost the reverse fixture in a tight 12-10 battle.
But at Peel Park the Reds showed class and character in a bruising battle.
Within five minutes of kick-off front rower Ken Sackfeild steamed over the line with Wes Winder adding the extras.
The forwards continued to press the advantage, Mike Vinton adding the second after collecting a kick and powering through the Rangers full back, again Winder was on the mark with his kick.
Kenny Sackfield was soon to get his brace, crashing on to a pass and spinning out of the tackle to bag his second.
Manchester hit back after a series of penalties, their winger flying over the line with an uncoverted try.
Lee Foster was next to benefit from his powerful pack.
As Schofield was held just short, Foster dived over to score from the next play.
At half-time the scores sat at 22-10 to the Reds.
As the whistle went for the second half Little Hulton Reds started like a house on fire.
Attacking down the left and the right, Sackfield was denied his hat trick try when he failed to ground the ball over the Manchester line.
Hessian, Bell and Foster were calling the shots in the middle of the park and when Foster spun a 30-yard pass to Mike Sherwin on the right the scores moved to 26-10.
But Little Hulton eased off the gas and Manchester gained in confidence.
The Rangers were throwing the ball about and eventually got their just desserts with an unconverted score, followed by a converted score after some stout Reds defending.
Little Hulton were now hanging on with Hargreaves and Robinson repelling every thing down the left and Sherwin and Heaton doing the same down the right, leaving Manchester only the middle to go through and the Reds’ powerful pack dealt with that for last 10 minutes.
Little Hulton Reds face Westhoughton away next week with the playoffs still in sight.
All images: Little Hulton Reds Facebook
