Chester 30 Lymm 33

A DERBY duel with Birkenhead Park this Saturday offers Chester the ideal opportunity to bounce back from last weekend’s shock home loss to Lymm.

Head coach Nic Corrigan branded the Lymm display ‘unacceptable’ after his side let a 30-11 lead slip away in the final 20 minutes.

It was table-topping Chester’s first home defeat of the National Three North campaign, but Corrigan says he will not be hitting any ‘panic buttons’ yet and he sees this Saturday’s derby with old foes Birkenhead (2.15pm) as the ideal game to produce a positive response.

“I see it as a massive challenge,” said the Chester boss. “They will present us with a number of different issues, but I don’t think we could have asked for a better game after what happened last week.”

Corrigan added: “The Lymm performance was unacceptable. To be where we were after 50 minutes, then to concede 22 points late in the game... it’s just not acceptable and the players know that.”

The collapse was down to a ‘combination of factors’, according to Corrigan.

He said: “The pack let us down, not dominating the ruck. People were not hungry enough.

“There was an element of them thinking ‘we’re 30-11 up, we’ve done this’. But rugby is an 80-minute game.”

Chester took the lead soon after kick-off through a Tom Foden try. Lymm replied with a penalty but Chester hit back with two of their own to lead 11-3.

Will Bown’s converted try then made it 18-3 to the hosts.

Before half time, however, Lymm pulled it back to 18-11 thanks to an unconverted try and a penalty.

Early in the second period, Chester moved into a 30-11 lead courtesy of a converted try from Ross White and an unconverted pushover try.

But it all fell apart for Chester in the final quarter of the contest.

Showing great spirit, Lymm hit back with 22 unanswered points – from three tries and a late penalty.

Second row John McKenzie (knee) will miss the Birkenhead game through injury.

Chester 2nds lost 26-16 at Macclesfield 2nds in the Raging Bull North West Leagues (Conference A).

In Division Four South, Christleton went down 22-19 at Heaton Moor 2nds.

Helsby fell to a 24-22 defeat at Capenhurst in South Lancs/Cheshire Three.