WESTHOUGHTON Lions under-12s won their most important game to date, and did so in nerve-shredding style.

The Lions travelled to Warrington to play Woolston Rovers in the semi-final of the North West Counties Development Plate and reached the final courtesy of Zak Taylor’s last-gasp penalty that gave them a 14-12 win.

A nervy start from the Lions saw Rovers open the scoring. A quick passing play along the line found the winger who sprinted past the line and side-stepped the full-back to go in under the posts.

The Lions were resolute defensively and were managing to create space on the wing but twice the ball was dropped with the line begging.

Just before half time, a loose Lions pass was scooped up off the ground by a Woolston player and he showed a clean pair of heels to score, the conversion making it 12-0.

At half time, two scores down, Westhoughton seemingly had a mountain to climb.

However, the club’s Lions nickname has never been more apt than in this game as they came out fighting, playing faster and hitting harder than ever before.

It was not long before they turned their pressure into points.

A nicely set-up play saw more space created on the wing and the ball found its way to Ben Sixsmith who was a grateful recipient to score in the corner.

Taylor stepped up and added the extras.

Over the next few sets a few players stood out with man-of-the-match George Parr bulldozing his way through the Woolston defence and muscling up in defence and Josh Thompson directing the play with clever runs and smart distribution.

The visitors kept fighting for the second score, and were held up a couple of times before being stopped on the last tackle agonisingly close to the line.

With time running out, the Lions knew they needed to make a play and Ben Grindley-Roberts, moments after saving a try at the other end, forced a repeat set by forcing a goal-line dropout.

When the Lions received the kick the tiring Rovers could not cope with the speed of the Lions attack and when Sam Dixon threw a pass to Ethan Owens with space in front of him, the prop went over with a couple of tacklers on his back.

Taylor added the extras to level the match at 12-12 with just minutes remaining.

The sides exchanged sets before the crucial moment when Westhoughton were awarded a penalty with only seconds left on the clock. With a place in the cup final on the line, Taylor kept his cool and sent his kick flying between the posts.

Seconds later the final whistle blew to rapturous applause and signalled the Lions had earned a place in the final.