Eccles A 4 Haresfinch 9 FINCH produced a great rearguard action to topple the previously unbeaten Eccles outfit.

The big, well-organised home outfit started the match at whirlwind speed and quickly put the visitors' defence to the test with a series of powerful attacking thrusts.

Finch stood up to the task well though and hit back to open the scoring with a penalty goal by player/coach Billy Platt. This stung Eccles into action and they replied with an unconverted try.

Not to be outdone though, the visitors stormed back to regain the lead just before the interval when a sweeping seven-man move ended with the veteran Platt powering over under the posts. He added the conversion to make it 8-4 to Finch at the break.

A Platt drop goal early in the second half inched the visitors further ahead and proved to be the final score as defences began to dominate.

Finch thought they had made sure of the points when full-back Dave Swift linked up to plunge over, only for the referee to rule the 'try' out.

And from this point on it was a case of backs to the wall for Finch as Eccles launched wave after wave of attack in a bid to snatch the spoils. But despite being reduced to 12 men for the last quarter, following a harsh dismissal for retaliation, the visitors held out thanks to some superb, last-ditch tackling.

In a spirited all-round team effort, hooker Shaun Kilgannon typified the Finch spirit with a gutsy display of non-stop tackling with excellent support in particular from second-row Damian Clitheroe, centre John Jackson, scrum-half Stuart Simmons, prop Paul Horsley, the sure-tackling Swift and the evergreen Platt.

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