Crosfields 38

Normanton Knights 12

THE Knights' armour was dented and battered by a hungry Crosfields side on Saturday.

The two teams went into the game level pegging in the National Conference second division table but there was only going to be one winner after Soap built up an impressive 26-0 half-time lead.

Coach Bob Eccles declared he was 'quite happy' after the game.

He said: "We started slowly but then settled down and pulled away. The forwards worked hard and Russ Parkman was outstanding at full back."

Crosfields sealed their third win from five outings with some entertaining stuff.

Eccles said: "We're trying to work hard on our defence and play a bit of football too. I see entertaining the supporters as part of the game."

Despite it being a young squad Soap seem to have more confidence about their abilities this term.

Their seven tries followed controlled approach work, led by half backs Dave Gibbons and Eddie Bannon, and there was some skilful play to beat one-on-one marking with Jamie Stenhouse and Chris Blackwell figuring well in this department.

Paul Williams, in only his second game of the campaign, added steel to a defence which put so much pressure on Normanton that the Castleford side rarely carried possession for a complete set of six tackles in the opening period.

It took Crosfields just four minutes to open the scoring. Scrum half Gibbons crossed from 20 yards and Andy Holroyd converted.

Four tries came in 12 minutes towards the end of the half from Holroyd, two, Eddie Bannon, and Mark Nestor. Two of the four tries were goaled by Holroyd.

It was the Bannon brothers, Eddie and John, who added the second half converted tries for Crosfields while Normanton's raised performance brought tries for Lee Riddell and Wayne Westwood.

Soap: Russ Parkman; Ian Hannon, Paul Kelly, Jamie Stenhouse, Andy Holroyd; Eddie Bannon, Dave Gibbons; Paul Hennessey, Carl Porter, Chris Blackwell, Paul Williams, Mark Nestor, John Bannon. Subs: Chris Campbell, Gary Maddocks, Darren Razor Reynolds, Doug Johnson.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Soap visit strugglers Ovenden, kick-off 2.30pm. Their next home game is against high flying London Skolars on October 3.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.