Chester Gladiators can complete an historic treble this weekend after a dramatic 18-16 defeat of Garswood Stags booked them a place in the North West Men’s League Grand Final.

Having won the NWML Shield and the league leaders’ shield for Division Four, Chester face Manchester Rangers in the Grand Final at Select Security Stadium, home of Widnes Vikings, on Saturday (10am).

Gladiators were behind for almost all of last weekend’s semi-final but with time running out, Tom Roberts raced down the pitch for the match-winning score.

An error gifted Garswood an early score and a 6-0 lead at the Cheshire County Sports Club before Roberts posted Chester’s first points of the game when he crossed in the corner.

Billy Brickhill was unable to land the conversion but another mistake from the restart and some weak one-on-one defence resulted in the Stags going over for a second converted try to open up a 12-4 lead.

Kiwi prop Kellum Friday cut the deficit for Chester with a storming run from 10 metres out and Brickhill converted to make the score 12-10 in Garswood’s favour.

The visitors looked to have one foot in the final when an unconverted try in the corner increased the lead to six points but the Gladiators gave themselves hope in the final 10 minutes when Daniel Munt regathered a kick to score, although the conversion rebounded off the crossbar.

With the game entering the final minute, Roberts collected a pass deep in Chester territory and set off on a fine run for the line that ended with him crossing out wide to seal a thrilling 18-16 win.

Manchester, who ended the regular season in second place, beat Rochdale Cobras 38-6 in the other semi-final.