Haydock 28-22 Heysham Atoms

The Atoms didn’t seemed to be fazed by the quality of the opposition and ripped into their opponents straight from the kick-off, forcing an error early in the tackle count.

Loose forward Dan Helme shot out of the back of the scrum and Josh O’Donnell ploughed his way over for his first try of the season.

A lack of concentration straight from the kick-off gave Haydock a gift of a goal line drop out, the Atoms were opened up far too easily on the right edge and it was back to 6-4.

The Atoms conceded a second try as they were undone directly from a scrum, giving Haydock a lead that they hadn’t had to work too hard for.

Jake Harrison made a telling contribution to the cause and he came up with a one-on-one ball steal in the tackle in a dangerous area for the Atoms.

Josh O’Donnell was held up over the line as he looked for his second of the contest.

Liam Hall made a massive run from one side of the posts to the other to get in position to crash over the line on his favourite play with an unstoppable drive.

The Atoms were well on top at this stage and went into the half-time break 12-10 ahead.

The Atoms contributed to their own downfall early in the second half by needlessly giving away four penalties in a row, taking them from one end of the field to the other.

Haydock’s full back was the mainstay of their attacks and he engineered the important break.

Edmondson came up with an important last ditch tackle close to the left corner flag as the Atoms line came under increasing pressure but Haydock had wrestled the initiative in their favour and their influential scrum half stepped his way under the posts for a 22-12 lead.

The Atoms were further hampered and reduced to 12 men for 10 minutes as Liam Hall was yellow carded for a high shot. The advantage paid off almost immediately as Haydock scored their fifth try offloading the ball and supporting right down the middle of the ruck to make it 28-12 with 15 minutes left to play.

The Atoms certainly were not finished and Helme and Jamie Cottle made significant breaks before Edmondson outpaced the cover to score.

The Atoms continued to throw caution to the wind and young second rower Callum Brodie scored the most popular try of the day, but time ran out and they were unable to claim another try.