Having finished second to Drig on so many occasions in recent seasons, Sharlston were determined to get their hands on some silverware this time and even managed to win despite having centre Dale Potter red carded 11 minutes into the second half.

The Wakefield side were fortunate with some other decisions, however, as they should have been down more than one man and the match clinching try left Drig complaining with some justification that they were hard done to.

Maybe it was just Rovers' turn after all their near misses and their side of ex-professionals and top amateur players had the clear man of the match in stand off Lee Maskill who grabbed a hat-trick of tries.

He proved the difference between the sides and it was generally Sharlston's better finishing that saw them home on this occasion as Drig had more of the ball over the 80 minutes and good enough field position to have scored more than the two tries they did score.

It was Drig who scored first when with just five minutes on the clock powerful forward Andy Jackson had the Rovers defence back pedalling on a strong burst near the line. A quick play the ball found prop Steven McIntyre and he went over from close range with the opposition defence all over the place.

Unfortunately young scrum half Michael Sanderson missed an easy conversion and the lead lasted only three minutes with Sharlston hitting straight back with a sweeping move that saw Maskill and Potter combine to send James Byrom over in the corner. With Kevin Dickens adding a superb touchline conversion it was 6-4 to Rovers.

Strong defence was needed from Drig to keep out Andy Fisher on a powerful burst and with Sharlston's massive forwards keeping the ball alive well it was a backs to the wall job for a spell. Finally, a gap was found and Potter sent Maskill over for the first of his tries on 26 minutes. Former Dewsbury and Doncaster player Craig Miles kicked the conversion to make it 12-4.

The rest of the half belonged to Drig as their bigger opponents visibly tired in the heat, but crucially they did not managed to get any points. Sanderson missed with a penalty kick while Andy Kay was stopped inches short and Adam Newton was unlucky with a great offload near the line which was controversially adjudged to have gone forward.

The luck remained with Rovers right on half-time when they could have been down to 12 men if the officials had spotted a blatant attack on Lee Mulhern by Dickens who charged into the Drig second row man with his shoulder long after the ball had been moved on.