Manchester’s response was far more exciting when Mark Bolton collected a loose clearance kick with little support around him, and jinked through the Hoylake defence to level the scores at 7-7 five minutes later, courtesy of Doug Day’s conversion.

After the early exchange of tries, the match settled with Manchester certainly the dominant side. The home side looked creative and confident with scrum half Matt Beasley in particular looking very alert. In fact the central axis with Beasley, Chris Nuttall at 10 and Doug Day at inside centre were continually testing their opposite numbers. Even more pleasing was that when Hoylake did get the ball, Manchester seemed to have two defenders to each attacker, unlike the frustrating half tackles that had been the team’s downfall the previous week.

It was quick thinking by Beasley that established Manchester’s half time lead when a tap penalty was ran to the left in the search for space. Even though little space presented itself, winger Luke Tyrrell took the pass at speed and proved impossible to stop as he headed for the corner. At 12-7 with five minutes of the half to go, Manchester deserved more but the half time lead was gratefully accepted.

With the game still close, Hoylake were wound up at half time and started the half aggressively but their pack were simply outplayed by the Manchester back row at the breakdown and their frustration led to a penalty that Day converted to increase the gap to 15-7 with half an hour or so left to play.

In reality, Manchester should have kicked on from here as clearly the better side. A second wobble, the first being the early score, happened when Hoylake set up an attacking position with a good penalty to touch. Although the resulting rolling maul was well resisted at first, a couple more phases proved too much and the visitors were back in touching distance at 15-14.

To be fair, even though the scoreboard suggested otherwise, there was no reason to panic and Manchester stuck at it, waiting for a missed tackle or a gap to appear. Such was the confidence, that a very kickable penalty was rejected in favour of a kick to touch. Although Hoylake had just suffered a yellow card, this seemed unwise and so it proved to be as the attack was inevitably cleared.

Supporters’ nerves were finally settled with 15 minutes to go when Matt Barker and Chris Nuttall showed good understanding in attack to split Hoylake’s defence and when they were joined by Doug Day in support, another sequence of exciting back play resulted in a score out wide. Day did extremely well to convert his own try and the 8 point gap was restored at 22-14.

It was at this point that Manchester finally cut loose as they had threatened from early on. The bonus point try was a popular score for Harry Noar when the second row found himself as the last “back” after ground was made by Tyrrell and Barker! (29-14)

With just over five minutes to go, it looked as if Tom Fantom was over as Hoylake’s defence started to crack, but when a second drive by Barker was not quite enough, it was Nuttall who made the score, converted to a healthy looking 36-14.

Hoylake battled hard to have the final say but a determined and stubborn Manchester defence weren’t going to allow this. Day managed to find the space for a clearance and it looked as if that would be it for the afternoon. However when the Hoylake receiver allowed the ball to bounce, Bolton became the recipient instead, but with a long run-in from deep in his own half. Although the effort was made, Bolton did not have enough gas to make it all the way and was eventually caught by the chasing defender. Tremendous support by Ben Jenkins gave him a very well deserved score instead, as a tiring Bolton was able to get the pass away, for Jenkins to sprint to the corner for the sixth try and a 41-14 scoreline.

After last week’s disappointment at West Park, Manchester are well and truly back with their third successive home win and confidence high, as they chase that elusive away win against strugglers Glossop in their next match.