LIONS FIGHT BACK FOR SENSATIONAL VICTORY

SWINTON LIONS 30

GOOLE VIKINGS 28

IAN RIGG Heywood Road Sunday

Aaron Lynch scores winning try against Goole

Swinton Lions staged a superb second half fight back to snatch victory over a Vikings side that looked like they were in for their first league victory of the season. Vikings had two early chances and Jaylan Hodgson and Jack Coventry were both held up then Tom Halliday thought he was in but Mitch Cox managed to stop the attack. Reece Briers was causing problems with his high kicks all afternoon with the tricky wind. Vikings struck first when Thomas Minns went over from a Jamie Shaul pass on seventeen minutes and Reece Dean converted. The Lions then hit back quickly five minutes later when Tommy Porter scooted from acting half back to score by the posts and Briers converted. They took the lead virtually from the kick off when Gav Rodden playing his one hundredth career game laid off a nice short pass to Finley Beardsworth and he too crossed by the posts with Briers converting again. The scores were locked again just before the half hour when Neil Tchamambe raced down the left to score, and Dean converted. The Vikings then knocked on at the restart, but it was them who scored next when Shaul ended a nice move scoring by the posts with Dean again converting. It got even better in the dying seconds of the half when Tchamambe latched onto a Dean kick to score by the posts and the provider converted.

The Lions tried to his back early in the second half when Briers put a kick to the line, but it just ran away from the chasers. There was a fight on forty-six minutes which resulted in Halliday being sent to the sinbin, but the Lions were in their own twenty when they got the penalty. Briers was becoming more and more instrumental as the game went on and on fifty-nine minutes was involved in the build up to the next try when Bobby Shingler raced through a large gap to score by the posts and Briers converted. Vikings were not lying down and four minutes later Tchamambe completed his hat trick in the left corner, but Dean had his first failure of the afternoon. The Lions hit back virtually on the next play when Briers put up a high kick and Porter popped up in the left corner to knock the ball back to Rodden and he found the supporting Ellis Anderson who raced in by the posts. We were now in for a very tense ending, and it was the Lions who produced what turned out to be the winner when Briers again put up a high kick to the right and centre Aaron Lynch took it to score right in the corner. Briers had it all to do with the conversion from the touchline to put the Lions into the lead and he judged the wind superbly to land the kick with still nine minutes left on the clock. Vikings had one more chance four minutes from time, but Potters kick was too strong for his chasers and the Lions held on for a famous victory.

MATCHFACTS

LIONS

19 Dan Abram

5 Harry Higham

2 Ellis Anderson

22 Aaron Lynch

25 Frank Sergent

14 Jordan Paga

7 Reece Briers

8 Adam Sidlow

18 Tommy Porter

20 Jamie Reddecliff