Moor lose tough encounter in Lancashire Trophy 1st Round.

Having been promoted in the league at the end of last season, Moor also moved up a level in the Lancashire cup competitions and were drawn at home to Wigan last Saturday in round 1 of the Lancashire Trophy. The Green Lane side knew that this would be a much sterner test than what they had been used to over the last couple of seasons and so it proved to be.

Moor kicked off and did not have any worthwhile possession for the first 25 minutes as their opponents kept control of the ball and kept the home defence under pressure, but to their credit, the latter held firm. On the few occasions that Moor had the ball in this period, they gave it away cheaply as they were either muscled off it or made silly mistakes. Eventually, Wigan opened their scoring with a try wide out that went unconverted. This seemed to spur Moor into life as for the first time in the match, they began to keep possession and from a forward drive on 30 minutes, the ball was recycled quickly along the back line for centre Dan Slater to make an angled run to score a debut try under the posts, converted by fly-half Martin Shelley. This was to be the only time in the game that Moor held the lead as the opposition then scored two more converted tries, both coming from unforced errors by the Green Lane side, who went into the interval trailing 7-19.

From the re-start, Wigan resumed their dominance and quickly scored two more converted tries and it was beginning to look as if Moor would be completely over-run. However, the home side stuck to their task and for the next 15 minutes had as much of the play as the visitors and would have scored another try but for an uneven bounce of the ball. Moor again went on the attack and had the opposition line under siege, but just as it looked as if they would score, a wrong option in the backs resulted in the ball being dropped which the Wigan outside centre gathered up and sprinted the full length of the pitch. Although he was caught before the line, he was able to unload to one of his flankers who crossed for his hat-trick. Another converted try virtually from the re-start ended any possible hope of Moor getting back into the game, but the home side did not give up and in the last 5 minutes scored two converted tries. The first came from full-back Martin Snidal, following inter-play with winger Ivan Smetana and the last from replacement Phil Butcher, who made one of his classic charging runs straight through the centre of defence to score under the posts, both tries being converted by Shelley.

The final score of 47-21 to Wigan reflected their superiority, especially in the forwards, but the score could have been far closer had Moor reduced their error-count. This was a valuable test for the Green Lane side as it gave them experience of what they are likely to face this season and showed that they are more than able to compete at the new level, providing they can keep any errors to a minimum.

Moor open this season’s league campaign with a home match against Vale of Lune on Saturday 13^th September, k.o. 3:00pm.