Lions visit big guns in confident mood after taming Chester

Ben Young gets a hug after scoring the winning try. Picture: Mick Sutterby

They picked up their first ever National League win at the weekend when defeating Chester 17-10 at Bretton and they appear to have a great chance of adding win number two at the famous club in Lytham St Annes.

For while the Lions are naturally buoyant after picking up their first National League Two North win at the sixth attempt, the boys from Fylde are smarting from an awful performance at Tynedale where they got hammered 59-15.

Lions chairman Andy Moore was ecstatic after the Chester victory but described the possibilty of winning at Fylde as ‘something else’.

Tom Lewis takes a tumble. Picture: Mick Sutterby.

He said: “They are the biggest club on our fixture list. They were a first-class club in the 60s and 70s and had players like Bill Beaumont and Roger Uttley, who were England legends.

“They’ve been in the National Leagues since their inception in 1987 and were in National League One last season.

“For us to beat them in their own backyard would be huge. Beating Chester was good but winning at Fylde would be something else.”

The success against Chester was fully deserved. Although they didn’t actually clinch it until three minutes from the end with an opportunist try by fly-half Ben Young, Vili Ma’asi’s side had dominated for long spells.

Charley Robinson on the attack for Lions. Picture: Mick Sutterby

They hogged possession for much of the contest and spent almost the entire first half deeply entrenched in the Chester half. And they also enjoyed territorial advantage for a great deal of the second period as well.

Yet, frustratingly for all in the Lions camp, they found getting points on the board difficult.

Refereeing decisions frequently went against them when they created the perfect platform from which to score or else they messed up the end-product themselves with wayward passing.

But justice was done in the end as they fought back from a 10-3 interval deficit to win with second half touchdowns from Aki Lea and Young.

And they did it despite having three players - Lea, Jake Carter and skipper Conor Gracey - sent to the sin-bin.

Moore said afterwards: “I told you the win was on its way after we did so well at South Leicester last week. That was the turning point really, scoring five tries there and moving off the bottom of the league.

“We deserved it today. It’s given us a tremendous lift. Now it definitely feels like we’re a National League side.”

Lions: Josh Waller, Charley Robinson, Alex Ioannou, Tom Lewis, Maris Andrijauskas, Jake Carter, Conor Gracey, Aki Lea, Franco Perticaro, Ben Young, Allen Carr, Nico Defeo, Suva Ma’asi, Rory White, Shaquille Meyers. Subs: Tom Dougherty, Chris Cutts, Jack Lewis, Ashley Hill, Christian Edbrooke.