Hanging Heaton reach cup quarter-final to keep Pennine double hopes alive

Hanging Heaton booked their place in the Pennine League Cup quarter-finals when they came from behind to defeat Greetland All Rounders 26-16 on the 4G pitches at Tetley’s Stadium last Saturday.

Heaton had two players cry off before the match, leaving them with 15 players, while it was the first time they had played on a 4G pitch.

Greetland took full advantage as they played with pace and flair and stormed into a 10 point lead after just seven minutes as they exploited Heaton’s right edge defence.

A few harsh words saw Heaton tighten their defence and William Brook produced some neat footwork to open the defence and race 50 metres to the line only for him to drop the ball in the act of grounding it.

Eventually Adam Johnson used his size and strength to bust through several tackles and race 40 metres to score between the posts and Danny Hainsworth converted.

Prop forward Anthony Fallas had the best game of his career and he levelled matters five minutes later with an unconverted try.

Ryan Hardwick was sent to the sin bin for an alleged punch in a scrum and Greetland took advantage to score their third try to lead 16-10 at half-time.

Both sides were fired up at the start of the second half, producing some fierce tackles.

Terry Maun managed to slip through several tacklers to score and Hainsworth converted to level once more.

Simeon Torr used his pace and strength to bust through and plant the ball down as the Division Two West leaders led for the first time and Hainsworth added the conversion.

Greetland broke through and looked certain to score but the scrambling defence got back to deny the visitors, who had a player sin-binned for tripping.

Heaton landed a penalty, despite strong claims the goal attempt had drifted wide and a minute from full-time they sealed victory with a second penalty to maintain their unbeaten run this season.

Tom Ripley was also among Heaton’s stand out players as they set up a quarter-final clash against Moldgreen this Saturday to retain hopes of a league and cup double.