WITH a healthy 12-point lead heading into the final quarter against Blaydon on Saturday, Lymm could perhaps have been forgiven for thinking the win was in the bag.

After all, they had recovered from the worst possible start to run their high-flying visitors ragged either side of half time.

However, they did not bank on a stunning fightback that allowed the visitors to pinch a 34-28 victory with the game’s final play.

It means Lymm are handed their first loss on Beechwood’s new artificial playing surface while Blaydon surge to the top of the table.

“That was a really tough result to take,” Lymm director of rugby Adam Fletcher said.

“At 25-13 with 20 minutes to play, we should have closed the game out and finished Blaydon.

“Unfortunately, we made a few errors that allowed Blaydon to get back into the game.

“We played some really good rugby and scored some excellent tries. I’m so proud of the whole squad.

“All credit to Blaydon, they showed at the end what a good side they are.”

“To go through that many phases, in those conditions, to score a match-winning try was pretty special.”

With the strong winds of Storm Dennis in their faces, Lymm conceded a try in the opening seconds of the game before two penalties took Blaydon’s lead to 13 points.

As their scrum started to get on top, however, the hosts began to dominate.

Steve Pilkington gathered his own chip over the Blaydon defence to score before James Kimber muscled his way through a gap to add his name to the scoresheet, with Cormac Nolan converting both tries to put Lymm into a one-point lead at half time.

After the break and with the wind now in their favour, Lymm picked up where they left off and Blaydon were struggling to contain them.

The visitors had two men sent to the sin bin, allowing Nolan a brace of converted shots at goal to extend the lead.

Another superb backs move following a dominant scrum then allowed Nathan Beesley to show his electric pace to cross and put his side into a seemingly unassailable position.

Blaydon, however, had other ideas and two tries either side of another Nolan penalty brought them to within one point.

The penalty count rose against Lymm and skipper Adam Bray was sin-binned, allowing Blaydon to pile on the pressure and the resulting try came on the stroke of full time.

Lymm will travel to Morpeth on Saturday with the aim of bouncing back.

Lymm: Nick Ashton, Adam Bray, Matty Hand, Aaron Rasheed, James Yates, Joe Watson, Oli Higginson, Josh Hadland; Tom Shard, Scott Redfern; Rory Riddell, James Kimber, Steve Pilkington, Nathan Beesley, Cormac Nolan. Subs: Gavin Woods, Matty Connelly, Andy Davies