Thornhill Trojans welcomed back scrum half Scott Green to the fold for this National Cup tie and the 19 year old made an immediate impact by scoring a hat-trick of tries. The win was a much needed confidence boost for Thornhill and saw them start 2008 in fine style with a whirlwind second half performance. Scott Green was in fantastic form as he renewed acquaintances with his team mates and deservedly took the man of the match award.

The final  margin of the victory looked anything but possible in the first half as the Castleford side battled hard and appeared to be getting on top for long spells.

M.O.M. Scott Green dives over for his and the Trojans opening try.

The first half started badly for the Trojans with the Panthers exposing some very half hearted defensive work. Prop Neil Hutchinson picked up the ball just inside the Panthers half of the field and set off on a searching run. Hutchinson showed a tremendous turn of pace and no Thornhill defenders could bring a stop to his run. Eventually the prop forward ran out of would be Thornhill tacklers to beat and crossed the try line for a score. Dale Cogan converted. This score was still inside the games opening five minutes and the outlook looked pretty bleak for Thornhill if they weren’t to book their ideas up on defence.

Thornhill were then allowed to benefit from a period of Panthers indiscipline when a series of penalty decision took play towards the visitors try line. It was after one such penalty that Scott Green opted to quickly run the ball and caught the Castleford team out. Green raced over the try line for an unconverted score to open Thornhill’s try account.

But this score only spurred the visitors on to extend their lead. Castleford made a raid towards the posts but were held short. From the play the ball the action moved right and Dale Cogan managed to hold off his tacklers to cross for an unconverted try.

But from this point the game began to slide away from Castleford Panthers as injuries and a lop sided penalty count began to take their toll.

Richard Bostock cut inside his marker and went on a powerful run to score a try for the Trojans. Craig Holmes converted as Thornhill cancelled out their uncertain start to this game.

The sin binning of Craig Smith on 35 minutes for punching didn’t help the Panthers game and after the half time interval the Trojans set about doing a demolition job on the visitors.

Scott Green forces his way over for his hat-trick try.

Right from the second half restart Thornhill pressed for the Castleford try line. With the try line within touching distance Anthony Harris ran directly onto a quick pass from acting half and crashed over for a try. Craig Holmes converted.

Minutes later Thornhill once again opened up the Panthers with a fantastic try which was started and finished by Scott Green. Green made the initial break just on the half way mark and passed the ball out to winger Michael Stewart.
Stewart went sprinting down the wing before desperately trying to get a pass back in field. The pass went to ground and Craig Holmes did very well to quickly pick up the ball, maintain the forward momentum and send out a pass to put Scott Green over for a try. Holmes converted a brilliant team try.

Thornhill continued to turn the screw and it was directly from a drop out from between the Castleford posts that they scored the next try. Play was restarted with a drop out and James Folan got the ball to scramble over the line to score a try which Craig Holmes converted.

By now the game was over as a contest and it really was damage limitations for the Castleford team as the Trojans cut loose. The game was briefly held up when Panthers’ Neil Hutchinson had to be carried off the field with a leg injury.

An up field move from the Trojans ended when Scott Green ran onto a pass to dive over for his hat-trick try. Craig Holmes converted.

James Folan was then on hand to torment an injury depleted Castleford team even further. It was Folan’s pass which put Rob Copley over for an unconverted try out wide.

With around five minutes left to play the referee decided enough was enough and blew for time to put Thornhill through to the next round.

Match report compiled by Andrew Byram. Match Photos Here