Newly wed Joss Ratcliffe answers call to play for depleted Thornhill Trojans in National Conference

The Trojans are certain of the drop as they are three points adrift of third from bottom York Acorn with only one game remaining.

They struggled to raise a team to fulfil their penultimate Premier Division fixture. As a result their scheduled home A team match against Dodworth was cancelled with nearly all of the reserve team players used to fulfil this NCL game.

Although the end result was never in doubt, the players who put their hand up to help the club out in its hour of need deserve the utmost respect. Twelve years ago Thornhill travelled to Thatto Heath for a mid-week end of season fixture and lost 102-4. History did not quite repeat itself, but it puts the margin of defeat into some sort of context.

The Thornhill team included Joss Ratcliffe playing at stand off, having only just got married the day before. He even brought his new wife with him on the team bus so they effectively had their honeymoon in Thatto Heath!

Assistance coach Anthony Broadhead once again came out of retirement and wore his heart on his sleeve throughout. There were also good showings from Josh Clough and MOM Brad Llewellyn.

Thatto Heath scored 14 tries in total. Eight of them were in the first half at the end of which they led 46-0.

Tries from Ben Heyes (two), Dave Pike, Tom Yates, Harry Rearden and a hat-trick by Jamie Tracey helped the hosts to piled up a big score.

Although poor defence from Thornhill enabled Thatto Heath to seemingly score with ease, the referee's interpretation of the momentum rule on forward passes certainly helped to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Thornhill's best effort in the first half came when a chip forward was pounced on by Taylor Potts but the gounding could not be executed so the opportunity was missed.

In the second half Thornhill's best scoring chances came when Lewellyn kicked forward to turn the Thatto Heath defence around.

Eventually their endeavours paid off when the ball was worked along the attacking line. The final pass from Nathan Lowther created an overlap to put winger Liam Ward over for an unconverted try in the corner. This gave Thornhill's small band of travelling supporters something to cheer about.

But six further tries to Thatto Heath through Niall Allen, Adam Saunders, Lewis Foster, Dave Bloomfield, Jack Jones and Tracey, with his fourth of the game, completed the scoring. Jack Jones kicked nine conversions and Dale Bloomfield one.

Thornhill have one game left to play, which is at home to Leigh Miners Rangers.