TYLDESLEY travelled to Manchester for the first of their big cup matches and despite facing a team from seven leagues higher they put in a performance that made a mockery of the supposed gap in class.
With a large travelling support, Tyldesley ran out to a deafening roar and boosted by this support the visitors weathered the early storm as Manchester attacked at breakneck speed.
Fielding several first team regulars and a current England Sevens winger, it took the home side some 10 minutes before they out-flanked the solid Tyldesley defensive line to open the scoring.
Tyldesley responded swiftly. Following a scrum on the half way the Tyldesley forwards drove up the right wing and despite both Rob Harrop and Craig Pulman coming close Manchester held firm and it looked as the danger had passed. However livewire ccrum half Lee Cunliffe had other ideas and he dummied twice before spinning out of a tackle to score under the posts which left Eddie Wallbank with a easy conversion.
The Tyldesley front row of Howard Hampson, Chris Plimley and Howard Hughes were clearly enjoying themselves as they proceeded to take three strikes against the feed and upset the Manchester scrum half immensely. Tyldesley also took their fair share of lineout ball with Craig Shotton and Lee West forcing the home side to change their throw to counter the Tyldesley jumpers' growing confidence.
The obvious difference between the sides was speed of execution and Manchester scored two more tries near the end of the half as Tyldesley tired.
Refreshed after the break, Tyldesley again took the game to Manchester and centres Stewart Manning and Andy Dickinson gave as good as they got as the midfield battle heated up. Out on the Left wing Gary Corbett showed some fine touches and his defence was top drawer as wave after wave of Manchester attacks where thwarted. Loose forward Darren Edge had an outstanding game, putting in some crunching tackles and forcing the Manchester back row to commit themselves when he went forward with the ball in hand.
Another two Manchester tries did nothing to dampen the ardour of the visitors and a excellently worked back line move saw full back Mark Swanton coming into the line and his pass found Harrop who crashed over for Tyldesley's second try, again converted by Wallbank.
At 43-14 the game looked over but Tyldesley continued to press and Pulman broke two tackles to score to the left of the posts and leave Wallbank with another easy conversion attempt.
Coach David Sivill decide to use all his six replacements, giving run outs to Ryan Grainey, Richard Callow, Danny Woodward, Lee Berrisford, Mark Dickinson and Shaun Pulman. By the end of the game Manchester knew they had been in a game and showed genuine surprise at the performance of the amateurs from Tyldesley.
Tyldesley travel to Heaton Moor tomorrow to continue their league campaign knowing that they can play at much higher level and with the consistency they have show this season it should be a matter of time before they start moving up the leagues.
Last Saturday Tyldesley seconds made the short trip to Leigh and went down 28-6 with just two Ian Worsfold penalties to show for their efforts.
Tyldesley thirds entertained Leigh and in a game which improved from the start the home side ran out 19-17 winners thanks to tries from Ben Topping, Phil Howarth and John Fetherston the latter set up by fantastic break from the aging Peter Mannion who rolled back the clock to chip the ball over the Leigh defence leaving lightning heeled Fetherston with the simplest of touchdowns.
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