Folly Lane 16 - Heysham Atoms 8

It was a close affair earlier in the season and it was exactly the same at Manchester on Saturday.
The game was played in good spirit and expertly refereed, which added to this entertaining encounter.
The Atoms suffered with some late cry-offs but entered the game full of confidence.
The Atoms won the toss and opted to play up the slope in the first half in the knowledge that if they put up a big defensive effort for the first 40 then they would have a real chance in the second half.
Straight from the kick-off an unforced error put the Atoms on their own line and this is where they spent long periods of the first half.
Their defence looked solid and organised and was able to snuff out most of the Folly attacks.
The keen tackling of the Atoms was well led by Mike Hope and Rob Shaw. One of Hope's tackles proved to be a try saver and not only did he clean his man up he "reefed" the ball at the same time.
Young prop forward Liam Hall returned to side after his exploits with Great Britain students and his forceful running gave his fellow forwards a target to hit.
Helme and Hartlebury began to distribute at first receiver and the play was positive and controlled.
Space was at a premium with both sides adopting an aggressive style of defence. Centre Mark Allan found a half gap but the link pass, to young winger Martin Pike, just failed to go to hand.
The Atoms found some attacking territory and forced a couple of goal-line drop outs after intelligently kicking and chasing.
Steve Bowman and Rob Shaw have formed a hard-working partnership in the second row and their running just that bit wider away from the rucks was paying dividend.
A period of pressure on the Atoms' line looked to have been well dealt with.
Again Hope was in the thick of the action intercepting close to his line and galloping the length of the pitch only to be caught by Folly's impressive full-back.
The play the balls were slowed down and the Atoms could not take advantage.
The pressure was put straight back on with the next possession and a missed tackle in the Atoms ranks was capitalised on by Folly's prop forward.
He drew the full-back and put the stand-off away to score under the posts.
As the half drew to a close the Atoms could have felt pleased only conceding one score coming up the hill, but a score by centre Andy Downey gave the Atoms a real boost for the second half.
Darren Walker was "guesting" for the Atoms and his offloads just drew in enough cover for Andy to barge his way over the line close to the corner flag.
Unfortunately the conversion failed but the Atoms could feel pleased only turning round at 6-4 down.
Disaster struck immediately after the re-start when a try, which was the carbon copy of the first, was scored close to the right hand post.
Again the conversion was successful giving the Swinton outfit a 12 -4 lead.
The Atoms perhaps felt that all the hard work had been done in the first half but this was not the case.
Folly Lane gained in confidence from the early score and laid siege to the Atoms line.
Again the Atoms looked comfortable but this amount of tackling will always sap the strength at some stage during the game. The Atoms were unable to sustain any real territorial advantage but when they did it was Walker who looked most likely to open up the Folly defence.
Rob Shaw has made massive improvements in his game this year and he was again the stand-out player for the Atoms. His appetite for work in attack and defence was an inspiration to his team mates.
The monopoly of possession that Folly Lane were enjoying had the Atoms scrambling manfully but this amount of ball could only lead to one thing.
This amount of ball could only lead to one thing. With 15 minutes remaining Folly increased their lead with a slick handling move resulted in an unconverted try.
With three minutes remaining the Atoms hit back with a score. Hartlebury ran across the face of the defensive line and put Dave McVernon into the gap with a well timed pass.
The conversion attempt was hurried and missed but the Atoms got the ball back from the kick off.
The Atoms threw everything into attack and winger Russell Birkitt was just held up close to the line. This was the final attack of a pulsating game that was a credit to both sides.

ATOMS: Richardson, Pike, Downey, Allan, Goodfellow, Hope, Helme, McVernon, Aldren, Hall, Bowman, Shaw, Hartlebury Res: Crow, Walker, Birkitt, Doherty.