Wigan cement position at top of table with thumping win over Hoylake

The home side's quality showed immediately as a deep kick off led to Nathan Butler making a characteristic break down the right wing.

Butler made ground into the Hoylake half before putting Will Morgan away for his first try of the afternoon, with Danny Cassidy adding the conversion.

Five minutes later, this time Cassidy made a break through the middle, which saw him score under the posts and then convert his own try.

Credit to Hoylake, who managed to stop the flow and then fight back with a score of their own.

Having found good territory in the Wigan 22m they recycled the ball time and time again before eventually forcing their way over for a converted score.

However, Wigan put their foot on the gas once again, with Chris Carr making the initial break before managing to offload to Harry Barker, who forced his way through the Hoylake defence before being hauled down.

The ball popped the ball up for Carr to finish off, Cassidy adding the conversion.

Indiscipline now crept into the Wigan ranks, and a series of penalties put Hoylake within touching distance of the line.

With the ball kept tight, Hoylake ground out another score to keep themselves in touch, only for Wigan to open the gap just before half time.

Luke Sutcliffe pounced on a loose ball before making a break down the middle of the park, pinning his man before finding Tom Whelan on his inside, who went over for the score.

Cassidy added another conversion on the stroke of half time to make it 28-14.

Wigan started the second half with renewed focus and vigour and set about dismantling the visiting side.

Tries from Sutcliffe (2), Morgan (2), Butler, Wallace, Cassidy and Morgan again saw the home side rack up 49 unanswered points in the second stanza, while Cassidy ended the day with an impressive 11 conversions from 11 attempts.

Wigan welcome Tyldesley to Douglas Valley on Saturday for a 'Battle of the Borough', with kick off scheduled for 2.15pm.