WESTHOUGHTON Lions slipped to a first North West Men's League Division Four defeat against Chester Gladiators but it was a tight affair at The Den.

The Lions had lost 68-0 to Chester just a fortnight earlier in the cup but put up a better fight before going down 38-22.

It was the visitors who broke the deadlock with the first try but could not add the conversion.

But the lead did not last long as Ryan Berry scored for the Lions near the posts and the try was converted by Simon Speakman to put them 6-4 in front.

Chester edged back ahead with a converted try but the Lions responded in kind when Shaun Markland crossed the whitewash and Speakman added another conversion.

It looked like Lions would have a half-time lead but Chester's full-back profited from slack defending in the last play of the first period to run a try in wide to make it 14-12 at the break.

The topsy-turvy clash started in the same manner after the interval when a Lions full-back Scott Benyon collected on his own 10-yard line as Chester kicked for the corner and evaded eight defenders to race through for the try of the game to make it 18-14 in his side's favour.

Westhoughton were well-placed to avenge their cup defeat but, with 15 minutes to go, a sin-binning cost them.

Chester made them pay and ran in three unanswered tries while the Lions were down to 12 men and took the scoreline to 32-18.

They added to that with another converted score but a tired Westhoughton kept going and Dan Hill – playing on the wing – ran 40 yards to cross in the corner to complete the scoring.

The Lions travel to Warrington to face Culcheth Eagles on Saturday, kick off 2.30pm.