Lymm 26 Ilkley 25

SKIPPER Adam Bray admitted his Lymm side “robbed the bank” against Ilkley but expressed pride with the fight they showed at Beechwood on Saturday.

Richard McEvoy’s late try capped a thrilling comeback by the hosts, who trailed 25-13 with just 15 minutes remaining, and allowed them to leapfrog their visitors in the National League Three North table.

Bray and Jake Ashall also crossed for tries, with Cormac Nolan adding a conversion and two penalties for Lymm, who host bottom club Stockport on Saturday, kick off 3pm.

“We robbed the bank today but it’s about time a game like that went in our favour,” Bray said.

“We were poor for 60 minutes but put the phases together in the last 20, to get over the line.”

“They tired and we were better overall.”

Lymm got off to a poor start and found themselves 10-0 down within the first 11 minutes thanks to two unconverted Ilkley tries.

Nolan slotted a penalty to get Lymm on the board, but Ilkley crossed again and the conversion took the score to 17-3.

Lymm created several openings but could not find a finish before Nolan added another penalty, but Ilkley replied with a kick of their own to lead 20-6 at half time.

However, the hosts were re-energised after the break and Bray crashed over from short range, with Nolan’s conversion narrowing the gap.

Luck seemed to desert the hosts when Ilkley scooped up a loose ball and scored another try, but they were thanking their stars later on.

Ashall was at the bottom of a driving maul to narrow the gap before another Nolan penalty put them within a try of victory.

That try came when McEvoy broke through to score from 20 metres out.

Lymm: Dan Horton, Adam Bray, Mike Auden, Joe Watson, Will Baldwin, Jake Ashall, Matty Connolly, Oli Higginson; Andy Davies, Will Titherington; Rhys Jones, Richard McEvoy, Lucas Titherington, Joe Denham, Cormac Nolan. Subs: Tom Shard, Ali Sutherland, Jordan Widdrington.