Heysham Atoms 38-4 Haydock Warriors

The Atoms were superbly led by full back and captain, Jamie Cottle, who scored four tries and quite rightly won the man of the match award for his all-action display in both attack and defence.

The Atoms were immediately cut down to 12 men as something was said out of turn to the referee, who set his stall out very early on.

This numerical disadvantage didn’t hamper the home side too much as they soon took an early lead through a Jack Edmondson try after Kyel Dempsey had spun out of the tackle and the centre used all his strength and power to score wide out on the left.

The Atoms doubled their try tally as the industrious loose forward, Dan Helme, took the direct route to the line, taking a reverse pass from hooker Josh Whyke.

Cottle made it almost the perfect start as he broke away from the half way line to score as the Atoms forwards targeted their opposites in the middle section of the field.

Billy Livingstone kicked his second successful conversion for a 16-0 lead with a quarter of the game played.

Olly Murray was causing plenty of problems with his strong, direct running as the Atoms continued to concentrate their attacks around the middle of the park.

Cottle scored his second of the half on the 34 minute mark as he ran back and forth across the line waiting for the gap to appear.

When it did he strolled over the line, enabling the Atoms to go in at half time 22–0 to the good.

Jake Harrison continued the good work of the first period, scoring to the left of the posts showing his trademark footwork at the line to get him through to score his ninth try of the season.

Haydock had very little to shout about in the game up until this point and they finally exerted some pressure on the Atoms line forcing a goal line drop out with a good kick and chase.

They attacked to the right and straight hands created a gap for their right winger to squeeze in at the corner for a four pointer.

The Atoms re-grouped and the next score was of high quality and the highlight of the game.

A deep kick into the Atoms’ right hand corner was fielded by winger Dempsey, he confidently set off to clear his lines and passed to impressive 
debutante Joe Hunt, who not for the first time in the match broke the line.

He took play over the half way line and offloaded to Cottle, who did the rest, outpacing the cover to complete a 90 yard try.

Olly Cottle made a powerful break right through the heart of the Haydock defenders and too was able to get his arms free to offload in the tackle.

Hooker Livingstone was up in support and he found Jamie Cottle again on his shoulder and he registered his fourth try of the contest with another clean break.

The game got even harder for the St Helens side as the fatigue began to take its toll as the referee took the brunt of their frustration and he brandished cards of both colours, forcing the game into a premature end.

The Atoms’ discipline remained in tact and they were able to pick up the two valuable competition points on offer that keeps them moving away from the danger zone at the foot of the table.