Rossendale 39 Lymm 22, match report

Trailing 25-8 at the break, the visitors closed to within three points as Rhys Lilley and Aaron Rasheed crossed to set up the chance of an away win.

However, the hosts reclaimed the initiative and eventually closed out a bonus point victory.

"I thought we started well and played some exciting rugby, but then mistakes started to creep in which gave Rossendale easy field position and they took full advantage of that," Davies said.

"We were then left chasing the game, which played right into their hands.

"It was a young team we had out and their effort was brilliant, so hopefully they will learn a lot from that game."

The hosts took an early lead with a brace of penalties either side of a Cormac Nolan kick for Lymm, but it was the visitors who scored the first try when Kurt Riley's break ended with Ben Stansfield squeezing over from Tom Bray's miss-out pass.

As mistakes started to creep in, however, Rossendale took advantage and scored a try out wide to retake the lead and two more tries before the interval had them in control.

After riding out a period of intense pressure without further damage after half time, however, Lymm started to fight back.

Hooker James Pitcher broke through the line and the ball was moved out for Lilley to score, with Nolan adding the extras.

Another Riley break allowed him to feed Rasheed to score and another Nolan conversion narrowed the gap to just three points.

Rossendale were not to be beaten, though, and scored their fourth try to stretch the lead back to 10 points with eight minutes left and rounded things off with a final pushover try.

Lymm will aim to bounce back on Saturday when they welcome Wirral to Beechwood.

Squad: Cormac Nolan, Ben Stansfield, Ste Pilkington, Liam Connolly, Scott Redfern, Tom Bray, Gregor Watson, Kurt Ruley, James Picher, James Sherlock, Fin Murphy, James Yates, Aaron Rasheed, Harry Martin, Joe Watson, Gav Woods, Rhys Lilly, Kieran Hughes.