Moor maintain contact with league leaders following win at Fleetwood.

Moor started the game at Fleetwood last Saturday in a much brighter fashion than the previous week despite the very wet conditions underfoot. There had been some doubt as to whether the game would be played as a result of the heavy rain in the days leading up to the match, but in the event the decision to go ahead was vindicated.

The visitors put the home side under pressure from the off and had the majority of possession and position for the first half-an-hour, during which time they took the lead from a try and a penalty. The former came after 12 minutes when a Fleetwood player was penalised some 30 metres out but instead of opting for a kick, Moor chose to run the ball and when finally stopped just 5 metres short of the opposition line the resulting ruck was won and fly-half Martin Shelley, making his return after 4 weeks, put a deft chip through for No. 8 Keith Young to collect and dive over in the corner, scrum-half Shaun Stirrup just failing with the attempted conversion. He was however successful with a penalty kick 10 minutes later as Moor took an 8-0 lead. Fleetwood had the final say in the half though as they gradually began to put pressure on Moor and from a lineout deep in the latter’s half, their young fly-half collected a pass and proceeded on a fine individual run that saw him evade four tackles to score near the posts, making his conversion a formality. To rub salt into the wound, he then kicked a penalty from just inside the Moor half and the home side edged ahead 10-8 at the interval, much against the run of play.

 Moor regained the lead not long after the restart with an almost identical try as the first. Attacking in the opposition’s half, Shelley chipped ahead and the bounce favoured centre Martin Snidal who collected to crash over for a try, converted by Stirrup. The sides then exchanged a penalty apiece before play became bogged down, almost literally, in the Moor half. As the match drew to a close, the home side redoubled its efforts to save the game but, true to form, Moor’s defence soaked up this pressure and in the last minutes the visitors took play back into their opposition’s half and following a series of rucks on the Fleetwood line, lock Ben Jones drove over for an unconverted try and Moor ran out 23-13 winners to consolidate their third place in the division. Although the conditions did not suit their usual style of open rugby, the Moor players should take some heart from this performance as it was an improvement upon the previous week and showed that if they need to grind out a victory they can do so. 

Moor play at Burnage this coming weekend in the second round of the Lancashire Trophy competition, k.o. 2:15 p.m.