CHORLEY Lynx's hopes of making progress in the National League Cup suffered a major blow when they went down to a disappointing defeat against Whitehaven at Victory Park.

Lynx have now lost their opening two fixtures in the competition, which leaves them a mountain to climb in their remaining games.

After the game Lynx coach Graeme West said: "I was disappointed with the referee in the opening 20 minutes. I felt that he penalised unfairly and this kept us under the cosh and 12 points down.

"All the tackling we had to do in that period took its toll in the later stages of the game.

"All round we made too many mistakes but we did show glimpses of what we can do and if we had taken our chances we could have gone in at half time ahead.

"I thought Wayne Bloor played exceptionally well at centre, but we need to recruit for that position so that he can play in his natural position."

Lynx were under pressure from the start as they conceded a number of early penalties. They conceded two tries in the fourth and seventh minutes from Aaron Lester and Wesley Wilson, both of these stemming from needless penalties. Steve Kirkbride added two conversions.

Lynx had a let off in the 12th minute when the referee disallowed a try from Marc Jackson, and this seemed to give Lynx some inspiration as they began to dominate the game.

They should have been on the scoreboard in the 14th minute but with a clear overlap, a loose pass went into touch and the chance was lost. Lynx were creating some good field positions but the quality of passing left a lot to be desired as they spurned chance after chance.

Lynx finally broke through in the 33rd minute when Dean Cross touched down after good work from Wayne Bloor and Lance Hamilton but on the stroke of half time Lynx fell further behind when poor defensive play allowed Aaron Lester to reach out and touch down, with Steve Kirkbride adding the conversion.

Things continued to get worse for Lynx in the 52nd minute when Aaron Lester broke clear to send in Leigh Smith with Kirkbride again adding the extras.

Lynx continued to battle and gained some reward in the 58 minute with a try from Eddie Kilgannon.

Both sides were then reduced to 12 men for ten minutes as Lynx's Andy Grundy and Whitehaven's Mark Cox found themselves in the sin bin after a flare up and within five minutes Lynx had reduced the arrears further with a try from Lance Hamilton. Whitehaven had the last word with two further tries in the last ten minutes through Aaron Lester and Mark Wallace with Steve Kirkbride adding another two conversions to leave them comfortable winners.

Next Sunday Lynx travel to Gigg Lane to take on fellow strugglers Swinton Lions, who have conceded more than 60 points in both of their group games so far.

CHORLEY LYNX...12 WHITEHAVEN...48