LICHFIELD bounced straight back to winning ways against Ilkeston.
The city side were able to call on returning duo Freddie Wilson and Chris Bennett to bring much-needed experience into the young line-up that had suffered defeat at Dronfield in the previous outing.
It took Lichfield around 20 minutes to open the scoring through James McKenzie, despite playing down the awkward slope – and it quickly became 14-0 thanks to Sam Benson going over under the posts, which meant they could keep hosts Ilkeston at arm’s length
The home side saw a couple of smart downwind kicks gave them territorial advantage. A few forward drives saw back row Will Cullen squeeze over, with Liam Gavin converting.
The visitors response was almost immediate and Ollie Green was the next to score down the left, before Gavin kicked a simple penalty right on half time to make the score 21-10 at the break.
Ilkeston fancy their chances down the slope, but Lichfield prevented them from camping in that part of the field with some resourceful and combative defending.
The city side’s next try came from a well-rehearsed move off a scrum and McKenzie was too hot to handle as he raced through the gap exposed by some decoy runners.
George Doughty narrowed the gap to eight points when he supported a clever break from Joe Eves with just under 20 minutes to go – and the next five minutes were significant to the Lichfield cause.
Starting with a home side lineout, the defending from the whole side forced Ilkeston back into their own half. When the ball was turned over, Kieran Higgins was soon racing up the right touchline and evading the cover for a great fourth try of the season for him.
The hosts were not finished though and from 35-15 down, they scored two quick tries with time running out.
Ilkeston threatened again immediately, but were halted and there was time for Jack Hamlet to seemingly score, but the unsighted referee could not award the try, leaving Lichfield to settle for a 35-27 win.
