Thornhill Trojans went into their final Premier Division fixture of the season on a hiding to nothing. With the threat of relegation now a distant memory Thornhill fulfilled this fixture with nothing to play for except pride.

However, Leigh Miners on the other hand had everything to play for as they needed to better whatever score East Hull could beat Wigan St. Patricks by six or more points. Therefore, the Leigh team needed to rack up as many points as possible in order to finish top of the table and be crowned as Minor Premier Champions.

A toothless performance from the Trojans provided little resistance for the Miners and at times it was simply a case of men against boys as the home team ran in 15 unanswered tries.

This was a record defeat for Thornhill, surpassing the 66-0 score line against Super League Catalan Dragons in the Rugby League Cup two seasons ago.
To put this score into further context Thornhill’s previous heaviest defeat in the National Conference League had been 12-54 recorded earlier in the season at Wigan St. Patricks.

Trojans M.O.M. Richard Pachniuk.

The Trojans were also on the end of the same score line at Leigh East in the 2003/04 season.

In the second half the Leigh  side really did cut loose and ran in tries with monotonous regularity. This left Thornhill followers praying for the fulltime whistle to bring an end to this butchering.  Thornhill offered very little in this game. Their only real attack happened in the first half when Liam Morley broke free but this came to nothing just inside Miners half of the field. Other than that Thornhill never came within reach of the Leigh Miners try line.

Thornhill’s man of the match was Richard Pachniuk as he tried to give the youngsters some on field direction despite the home side scoring almost a point a minute.

It was after only a minute of play that Leigh Miners scored their first try when a couple of weak miss tackles allowed Liam Coleman to scamper over for an unconverted try. This was immediately followed by a try from Kieran Dainty when he broke from his own half of the field to race 80 meters and touch down. Martyn Ridyard converted.

With the game still inside the first ten minutes of play Mark Jones broke away down the wing, through two attempted tackles and over for the third try. Ridyard converted.

Miners then broke up the middle of the field and worked the ball out to the wing. Darren Pilkington finished the move by scoring an unconverted try in the corner. Aaron Gorton then side stepped his way through the Thornhill defence to break away and score a try between the posts. Ridyard converted.

The first half finished with Thornhill conceding an embarrassing try. On the last tackle Miners put a kick in to the in goal area. The ball bobbled in the in goal area and two Thornhill players failed to clear it. The unattended ball was pounced on by Aaron Gorton and the try was scored. Ridyard converted.

The second half was painful to watch and got off to a heated opening when tempters boiled over. Blows were exchanged as players from both teams rushed in to restore order. When emotions had settled the referee reached for his red card and sent Miners Kieran Dainty and Thornhill’s Scott Dyson from the field. This was a disappointing way to sign off as player coach for Scott Dyson.

Straight from the restart Leigh Miners scored an unconverted try in the corner through Jimmy Thompson. Then the league’s leading try scorer John Woods broke up the middle of the field to score a try. Ridyard converted.

This was followed by tries from Mark Jones, Andrew Sarsfield, Gary Dunn, Martin Lewis, John Woods again and Darren Pilkington. Ridyard converting all but one of these tries to further compound Thornhill’s misery.

This really was a bad day at the office for Thornhill and the referee’s full time whistle was more than welcome to bring the curtain down on the season.

Match report compiled by Andrew Byram.