A STRONG Trafford MV side travelled to Littleborough for coach Ricky Philips’ first away match in charge and came away with a 37-30 win in the ADM Premier Division to sit second.

The game started frantically with both sides showing attacking intent.

A good clearance kick from Stuart Crampton was gathered by Littleborough deep in their half and as they looked to go wide, their captain and inside centre crucially knocked on under good pressure from Dominic West and Matt Coxon.

From the resulting scrum MV moved the ball through the hands to find winger Jon Lord who still had a lot to do, and he powered over in the corner to give MV a 5-0 lead.

Littleborough showed good character to recover from the early setback and quickly found possession in the MV half after some powerful runs from their number eight.

Trafford were struggling to contain the width the home side were finding in their attack and they were caught out by a good cross-field kick in behind the defence.

The Littleborough number 11 gathered the ball confidently and scored the equalising try. The conversion was good and the home side took the lead.

The game at this point was an open contest with both sides exchanging penalties.

After MV repelled further pressure from the home side, a well-rehearsed move saw Crampton delay his pass to allow centre Coxon to split the defence and race into space.

A superb pass found West, who raced away with impressive pace to finish an excellent try.

In response, Littleborough once again applied good width to their attack and sent their winger over for his second try as the half ended 17-16 to the home side.

Philips decided the time was right to introduce James Matthie to the contest to add an extra threat to the MV backline.

But Littleborough started the second half the much stronger side and their continued pressure saw them build a seven-point lead through two long-range penalties.

However, they missed two further attempts and Trafford’s resilience saw them break a spell of pressure that was threatening to take the game away from them.

The MV backs, dangerous in attack, moved the ball quickly to Coxon who released Matthie, running 40 yards and rounding a helpless full-back to score under the posts.

As the hosts looked for an answer to MV’s increased energy, a loose pass was intercepted by Pat Eccles who kept the remaining defender at bay with a strong hand-off before touching down close to the posts.

As MV looked to run the clock down, a silly penalty was conceded resulting in good territory for Littleborough.

Although Trafford won the resulting line-out, the ball was once again returned to the home side as MV attempted to clear the ball downfield.

Littleborough countered well and scored in the corner. The conversion was good and MV had seemingly surrendered a precious away win in the last minute.

With the clock red and the referee signalling last play, there was time for one last kick off.

As Eccles hoisted the ball high, excellent pressure from captain Andy Quigley and second-row Chris Ward saw the ball regathered from the kick off and West drove up the middle as Crampton organised a final attack to his left.

The ball was moved through the hands finding Ward who powered through three defenders to score a final try to seal victory for Trafford.

This weekend, MV host fellow pacesetters West Park who sit top after a resounding 98-29 win against Tyldesley.