In a bruising encounter at Rakewood, Littleborough recovered from a poor first half performance to outgun and outsmart a big Latchford Albion pack by 45 points to 12.

Centre Keenan Mason touched down for Littleborough within the opening 10 minutes before Latchford responded with 2 tries. First the left winger ran in a fantastic 80 metre effort before the second row burst through unusually weak tackles to dot down next to the right hand post.

Littleborough found a way back into the contest as David Kearns on his first start of the season broke through to score from close range. Hooker Nathan Mason then gave Boro the lead in typical fashion when he sniped from dummy half and burrowed under the desperate last ditch tackles on the try line.

On a scorching afternoon, Latchford's big team struggled to keep up their first half tempo while Littleborough's youthful and energetic side were growing into the game on every phase of play.

This showed when straight from the restart 2 big carries from left side combo Jordan Turner and Aaron Jones had Latchford back pedalling. Quick play from the ruck and even quicker hands put Turner in a gap. He then fed the perfect inside pass to Jack Whittles to streak under the posts.

Further tries from David Kearns and Nathan Mason took the game out of the reach of the away side as Littleborough continued to dominate in every facet of the game. Mason's second try was particularly spectacular individual effort as he brushed and battered his way through 6 defenders to dive under the sticks.

There was even time for Littleborough to register more points on the board as David Kearns collected a perfectly weighted miss pass from Dominic Kershaw to glide in for the hat-trick and with it the match ball.

Kershaw's simple penalty in the last play of the game saw him record a remarkable 100% successful rate from the tee and guarantee Littleborough a spot at the summit for another week.