Trafford MV maintain good form by winning Fleetwood

Article by Wilf Dooley

Trafford MV travelled to the coast last Saturday intent on maintaining their run of good form and keeping the pressure on 2nd placed Heaton Moor, waiting for the slip up’s to happen.

A strong selection , including the return of Aaron Booth at stand off, looked promising for MV.

The away team started well and a big tackle by Danny Burke on the halfway line brought a penalty to MV which was kicked to the corner.

A good catch and drive gave Jamie Kingdon the space to hit a good attacking line and crash through under the posts for Booth to convert easily 0-7. Fleetwood were battling hard bring strong defensive play out of Nathan Hamilton and Zac Fisher.

Further good defensive work from Jamie Kingdon, Micah Dyos and Andrew Moore forced MV out of their own half and allowed attacks to develop.

At this stage the game was very closely contested with both sides kicking for position and defenses clearing their territory. MV almost went further ahead when a good break saw Kingdon cross the line but the pass from Moore was deemed to be a forward pass.

Trafford entered a period of scrappy play, getting on the wrong end of the referees whistle and found themselves under committed pressure from Fleetwood which resulted in the home side narrowing the score with a try to the right of the uprights, conversion missed 5-7. This remained the score at half-time and both sides were up for the fight in the second period.

Trafford made an early substitution with Louis Stubbs coming on for Nathan Hamilton at full back, which didn’t work out as injury soon forced Stubbs off the field and Hamilton to return. MV took the early initiative with a long range penalty for a deliberate knock on by Fleetwood, which Booth was successful 5-10.

The home side bravely keep themselves in the game and several phases of play results in a penalty for a high tackle from the MV defence 8-10. Trafford make changes again as Craig Collier suffers elbow injury, on comes Sam Wilson. Danny Burke and Andrew Clegg drive play forward for MV with Booth and Moore adding to the forward momentum, forcing an error in defence which Booth slotted 8-13.

MV were now starting to get the edge and it was from a pick up at base of scrum that Pat Eccles nudges the ball through the oncoming defence and then win the footrace to get the touchdown ahead of the Fleetwood no’s 9 and 10.

Booth was accurate with a difficult conversion 8-20. Trafford were showing a dominance in the scrum with Bailey, Webster and Wilson controlling the set piece.

A good break in midfield by Kingdon put the home defence on the back foot and when the ball eventually arrived with Zac Fisher his pace was too much for the wide defence and he raced in from the ’22 metre line 8-25.

With 5 min to go and a bonus point within reach MV played  from a penalty near the halfway, Booth took the ball forward with Davenport supporting, from the resulting scrum a good drive and a No 8 pick up from Kieran Edgar drive through 3 defenders to secure that vital bonus point. Aaron Booth converted once again 8-32 as the final score.

This was again a confident and competent performance from Trafford MV which once again saw mew players entering the arena and adding their weight to the squad strength.

The pressure is now all on the teams above MV as the run of good form continues.This coming weekend MV head to Littleborough with 3 games left to play and all to play for.

In addition to the 1st XV being on a winning run the Trafford MV Ladies 1st XV are also unbeaten in 2023 and the Senior Colts XV have also won 5 from 5 in their league so lots of things are falling into place at Trafford MV at this crunch part of the season.

This weekend also see’s Round 4 of the Six Nations Championship which will see Trafford MV open it’s doors to the public who might be wanting to watch the games in a lively, friendly, Rugby Club atmosphere. All are welcome to join us for the games.