Jan Van’t believe his luck after late drama

Luctonians .......... 31pts Chester ................ 32pts

CHESTER head coach Jan van Deventer was left speechless after his side scored twice in the final minutes and Callum Bennett struck with the game’s last kick to sink Luctonians at Mortimer Park.

Luctonians had a bonuspoint wrapped up within 45 minutes after tries from Frank Kelly, Will Hodnett, Charlie Grimes and Joe White.

But from 31-10, Chester produced a remarkable comeback that saw them pile on 22 unanswered points through Ross White, Freeman Payne, Will Bown and Mike Craven, leaving van Deventer marvelling at their daylight robbery.

“We robbed Luctonians, they were really up for this following their defeat last week,” he said.

“They executed better than we did, defended better than us and we couldn’t gain any advantage.

“But we have come away with the result against the odds and we found a way.

“I had settled for a losing bonus point but to get all five in the last two minutes shows the courage of this side.”

Chester opened the scoring

TEAMS

LUCTONIANS: Doyle, Hodnett, Kelly, Smith A, Grimes, Jones (Scott-Young 42), Silver, Schroder (Watkins 29), Street (Kirkby 40), White J, Smith D, Price, Dodd (James 43), Hackley, Morell Unused Replacements: Tawfik CHESTER: Green, Vare, Foden, Payne, Ross, Burrage (Bennett 40), Morecambe, Campbell, Croft (Gill 40), Strudwick (Fitzgerald 40), Joseph, White (Bown 30), Baston (Blackwell 23), Craven, Ford REFEREE: Benjamin Russell ATTENDANCE: 422 Star man Frank Kelly - Luctonians after two minutes when Craig Ross broke through a couple of poor Lucs tackles, Alex Burrage converting.

But Lucs replied immediately when Kelly barged through following a scrum, Louis Silver converting.

An increasingly confident Lucs then blocked a Chester clearance kick, Piers Morell showing some delicate football skills to put Hodnett over for a convreted try.

Chester struggled against a well-organised Lucs defence until the home side conceded a penalty which allowed Burrage to reduce the deficit before Silver struck again immediately following the kick-off.

Lucs spurned a number of gilt-edged chanced in the Chester 22, but they were rewarded when Silver, Tom Jones and Kelly combined to send Grimes over, Silver again on target with the shoe.

Hodnett saw yellow just before half-time in what proved to be the first of many costly infringements.

Smith scored after a charge down early in the second period, but when Guy Kirkby and Morrell saw yellow, Chester seized their chance.

First, White stole through from a line-out to make the score 31-20 as Chester snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

First Bown went over and – with the last play signalled – Craven took them within a point before Bennett kicked the last ditch conversion to steal five points.

Lucs coach Alex Davidson was left disappointed, bemoaning refereeing interventions and his side’s lack of experience.

He said: “We stuck to our game plan for 60 minutes. We were hit with a couple of dubious decisions which swung the momentum and perhaps our young side showed its inexperience when we couldn’t close the game out in the six minutes of added time.”