Little Hulton Reds faced a mighty challenge in the North West Men’s League against Oldham opponents Fitton Hill.
Fitton Hill kicked off the match but the Reds immediately made a hash of the return, gifting the ball back to Oldham side inside their own 20.
Credit to the Reds, their defence stood firm and on their first visit to the Oldham side’s half winger Davy Jones rounded the full back only for the referee to rule out the score for a forward pass.
Little Hulton weren’t to be denied though as front rower Joe Lyon plunged through Fitton’s lines to open the scoring, with Wes Winder duly adding the conversion.
It was all one-way traffic but a missed tackle saw Fitton’s speedy stand-off race 50 yards to pull the score back to 6-4.
From the next set the same player intercepted the ball five yards from his line, powering up the field and setting up the Fitton Hill full-back for an easy score against the run of play.
Fitton’s defence was being battered by Little Hulton and the pressure finally told.
The ball went out wide from Mike Shirwin to Davy Jones, who again showed his predatory instincts to beat the full-back and leave the score 12-8 to Little Hulton at half-time.
Little Hulton knew they had to convert pressure into points against a dangerous pacey side and Gareth Hessian punched through for three unanswered scores with Winder knocked conversions over like clockwork.
At this point the Reds could breathe easier, but pushed on for a rather flattering final score of 34-18.
Man of the match went to hat-trick hero Hessian, with good support from Lee Foster for his ball distribution from acting half-back and another shift from the hard-running and tackling centre Alan ‘Woody’ Hargreaves.
Next week Little Hulton play host to Warrington side Crosfields, with all to play for.
