LYMM surrendered a 12-point half-time lead to lose at home to Ilkley in National League Three North on Saturday.

Having scored twice without reply in the first 40, Lymm were eventually beaten 20-17.

On five minutes, from a Lymm scrum near half way, blindside winger Richard McEvoy joined the line at pace, breaking through Ilkley’s three-quarter defence, and linked with centre Tom Bray, who put full back Joe Knowles in for the opening score.Tom Shard adding the extras.

The next period saw a sustained period of Ilkley possession which had them threatening the Lymm line, but throughout the Lymm defence looked composed and well capable of defusing all that Ilkley had to offer.

The Lymm scrum was in the ascendency and Ashall in particular was putting in a strong defensive shift.

On 15 minutes, with the help of the referee’s whistle, Lymm worked their way up the field and applying pressure on the visitor’s defence, forced a turnover. They spread the ball wide for Knowles to again dot down.

This almost happened on 28 minutes when a fine break by Tom Bray just needed closer support for a certain seven-pointer, but instead his clever kick to the wing failed tantalisingly to deliver the desired result.

As half time neared, this correspondent jotted down that biggest danger to Lymm was likely to come from an Ilkley interception.

With the referee not awarding any penalties all match for offside in the backs, it was inevitable that both teams would take advantage of this to some degree, resulting in a lack of mid-field space.

Ilkely had the majority of possession, but didn’t really do anything with the ball; Lymm when they did get the ball tried too much too soon and, inevitably, were quickly back on the defensive.

Lymm’s game plan appeared to have been taken-off with the oranges at half-time and a reluctance to play for territory was, at times, mystifying.

Fourteen minutes into the half and Ilkley got on the scoreboard with a penalty from 22 metres, awarded for pulling the maul down at a point when it seemed massively in Lymm’s interests to keep the ball above ground.

Immediately from the restart there was an aerial clash between a Lymm player and the Ilkley full back, who ended up leaving the field for medical attention.

After Shard had missed an ambitious penalty attempt, On 59 minutes came the key moment in the match when the Ilkley fly half intercepted on the half way line and, although hauled in by the recovering Lymm defence, linked intelligently with his speedy left winger for a converted score.

Five minutes later and there was almost a carbon copy score, but this time Ilkley’s support play failed to thwart the Lymm covering defence.

On 66 minutes, a monstrous penalty from 40 metres put Ilkley’s noses in front and the Lymm nerves were tangible.

Lymm were still putting Ilkley under pressure and on 70 minutes, on their own 10 metre line the Ilkley scrum buckled under pressure from the Lymm eight. However, they managed to salvage possession and the ball was flicked to the scrum half on the blindside who saw a gap and showed great pace to race towards the Lymm line.

Despite being hauled in, there was sufficient Yorkshire support to retain possession and recycle for the nine to cross at the second attempt.

Lymm now regained urgency and appeared to rediscover their mojo – albeit, not their decision making.

On 75 minutes, being awarded a kickable penalty under the Ilkley posts, they opted for a scrum despite audible advice from the crowd to take the points.

Eventually Lymm did cross for a try, when Jake Ashall forced his way over.

But with only 90 seconds left in the match it was unlikely to allow Lymm sufficient time to work their way back up field for the required winning score – so it proved.

Lymm visit Sheffield on Saturday.

Lymm: Jordan Widdrington, Ross White, Nick Ashton, Alex Kaihau, Zak Lythgoe, Joe McGrail, Jake Ashall, Adam Bray (C), Tom Shard, Rhys Jones, Mark Wells, Oli Higginson, Tom Bray, Richard McEvoy, Joe Knowles. Subs: Dan Horton, Will Baldwin, Cormac Nolan.