WESTHOUGHTON Lions Under-11s came out on top of a battle with Chorley Panthers winning 28-10 to keep up their good form.

The Lions started brightly working the ball well during their sets with Chris Sharrock making some smart runs on the inside and it gave them good attacking options.

But the Panthers defence worked hard and making it an entertaining but scoreless game early on.

The breakthrough came when Ben Grindley-Roberts spotted a gap in the line and raced through under the posts to get the Lions rolling and Sam Dixon added the extras.

The Panthers didn't let their heads drop and hit back by levelling things up at 6-6 before taking a 10-6 lead going into the break.

The second half started poorly for the Lions with an error from the kick off leaving the Lions defending deep in their own territory.

The next set was going to be vital for Westhoughton but they were equal to the task, sure there was plenty of scrambling in defence but when the dust settled the Lions had the ball and hadn't conceded anymore points.

Now the Lions started to control the ball better and reach the end of their sets well and a couple of completed sets later they looked like they were starting to get a foothold in the game.

The Lions found they needed to spread the ball wide if they wanted to find any space and Kieran Cooke sprinted onto a wide ball and just about having the pace to score in the corner to level things.

There was a tough two pointer that would follow but Jacob Lovett slotted the ball over to give the Lions the lead.

It meant the Lions had to step up in defence once more and they restricted the Panthers thanks to some awesome efforts from Dan White in both attack and defence.

The Westhoughton side found some space and once more Grindley-Roberts took full advantage with a cross field run finishing with him scoring in the corner and Ali Malik converted to give his side an eight point advantage.

Westhoughton's defence were in full swing with Jacob Lovett and Ben Sixsmith leading the line well.

It laid the platform for the Lions next try as the home team spread the ball deep in their own territory to Kieran Cooke who once again set off at pace, beating three defenders on his way to the line and a great try, Jack Lee kicked the two and the Lions were clear in front.

The Lions fifth try came from man-of-the-match Zak Taylor with a great run from dummy half followed by a slick show and go resulting in him scoring under the sticks to put the icing on the cake.