Lions one win away from Wembley

SWINTON are one game away from Wembley after a Challenge Cup second round victory over local rivals Oldham at Heywood Road.

As well as a spot in the third round of the historic knockout competition, Stuart Littler’s side have also advanced to the semifinals of the 1895 Cup, the final of which will be played as a curtain-raiser ahead of the Challenge Cup final at Wembley.

The Lions will discover who they will play in the third round of the sport’s main cup competition this morning when the draw takes place on the BBC Sport website. This is the point at which Super League sides enter.

It was a strong contest against Roughyeds, with both sides battling the strong weather conditions as much as each other.

Although Swinton’s first kick of the ball sailed into touch, they recovered quickly and Sam Grant opened the scoring when he finished a strong break from deep by Lions skipper Rhodri Lloyd.

Danny Langtree powered over to get Oldham on the board mid-way through the half, but a missed conversion left the visitors trailing 6-4 at the break.

Soon after the restart, Will Hope charged his way under the sticks to extend Swinton’s lead by a further six points, but Tyler Dupree finished off the move of the match in Roughyeds’ next set of possession to again cut the gap to just two.

Martyn Ridyard went it alone to score immediately afterwards and Duane Meadows’ touchdown in the corner took the home side’s advantage out to 22-10.

Ridyard demonstrated all of his experience to slot a dropgoal with 10 minutes remaining and although Oldham finished strongly and scored the final try of the game through Ben Heaton, it was Swinton that progressed with a 23-14 victory.