Lions lose again but the chairman has a smile on his face

The city side went down 34-27 at South Leicester, which was a fifth defeat from five games, but the two bonus points gained - one for scoring four tries and one for losing by seven points or less - meant they put their first National League Two North points on the board and actually moved off the foot of the table.

“Once again we started slowly and were 22-0 down after 18 minutes. It was the same old story,” said Moore.

“But after that we were the better side and I reckon if they’d been another five minutes we might even have won.

“Both sides scored five tries and that in itself is encouraging for us. But it was the way we played and the courage we showed to get to within sight of that first victory which was so massively positive for us.

“We’re getting there. It’s a shame we didn’t win but there’s light on the horizon after this battling display.”

After conceding three early tries plus a penalty, the Lions settled down to play some decent rugby and pulled it back to 22-12 with a cracking solo try by fly-half Ben Young, which he also converted, and a touchdown by Marius Andrijauskas from a driving maul.

South Leicester’s two electrifying centres created more havoc to create their bonus-point try just before half-time and it was 29-12 at the turnaround.

Oustanding Lions scrum-half Franco Perticaro then moulded a try for winger Rory White early in the second half and then White smashed his way through four tackles to go over again seven minutes later.

That made it just 29-22 and there was a hint of a famous victory.

But unfortunately for the Lions the next score - a length-of-the-pitch try by one of the super-fast South wingers - killed off their hopes.

The Lions did roar back again and prop Alex Iannou was on hand to drive over for their fifth try to make it 34-27. But then they ran out of time.