WESTHOUGHTON Lions under-12s recorded a convincing 36-14 victory over Woolston Rovers at the Den.

The two teams have become accustomed to playing each other this season, even meeting in the cup semi-final, and every game is played at the highest intensity from both sides.

It was the home side that struck first on this occasion, after a winding run early on in the set, the ball found itself in the hands of Ben Grindley-Roberts once more and the stand-off ran to the left edge and managed to ground the ball despite being spun by the onrushing tacklers.

The Rovers fullback has a habit of scoring against the Lions and today was no different he brushed of tacklers to equal the score. 

Zak Taylor scooted from dummy half on his own 40 line and put his foot down to cut through two defenders and go over under the posts. This kick was added by Josh Thompson.

Rovers responded again after a knock on caught the Lions’ defence watching and the full back scored his second of the game.

Zak Taylor could have scored his second shortly after but, with seemingly the line at his mercy, threw the ball left, where Kieran Cooke was waiting to pick it up and dive over.

The scores would be equal at half time though, as missed tackles from the Lions saw another score from Rovers to make it 14-14 at the break; however that would be the visitors' last score of the game as the Lions dominated the second period.

With a few new additions to the team, the Lions have a different feel to them and one of the new players made his debut this weekend. He immediately made his mark as Grindley-Roberts fired a pass over to him on the wing and speedster Jake Travis would not be stopped. Josh Thompson added a touchline kick to make it 20-14.

The next try was a strange one, Grindley-Roberts put a chip over the line in and Sam Dixon ran through and kicked it forward. The full back tackled him without

the ball and, eventual man of the match, Travis looked like he was over for his second on debut. The referee did however give a penalty try of which Thompson added the extras.

Grindley-Roberts and Dixon would combine again shortly after, with the stand-off finding his full back on his shoulder who would fly over to score.

Grindley-Roberts then found Travis once more who looked to have scored in the corner but it was deemed he had gone into touch in goal.

The Lions would score again though, as players backed away from Grindley-Roberts as he ran at the line and he dived over easily to help the Lions record a 36-14 home win.

The Westhoughton Lions Open Age side made the final of the NWML Division Four competition this weekend after a hard fought encounter against Langworthy Reds.

The Lions who led 26-6 at the break, ran out 38-36 winners to earn their place in Saturday's play-off final.