Tyldesley 31 Aspatria 41

Bongs battled hard to build on last week's first away win against Upper Eden but were unable to keep the momentum going.

Too many unforced errors along with a very high penalty count condemned them to their first home defeat of the campaign against a very good Cumbrian side that have won five of their opening six games.

The tough, physical contest that started well for the hosts.

A solid scrum, three minutes in, saw Paul Martin and Mark Dickinson move the ball out for full-back Martin Wallbank, who came into the line at pace, before crossing for a great individual try.

The conversion was missed and Aspatria replied with a penalty and converted try.

But Tyldesley came back and some excellent pick and drives enabled Martin to feed Dickinson, who crossed for a second Tyldesley try, which Wallbank converted.

Unfortunately, the see-saw battle tipped the visitors' way again as they caught the Bongs' defence napping, scoring a converted try after a quickly-taken penalty to go into the break 17-12 up.

Aspatria stretched their lead to 19 points after hitting the hosts with two converted tries at the start of the second half.

Bongs replied with a converted try on the hour mark.

A great line out followed by a few strong forward drives moved them closer to the line, great hands had the ball move out to Dickinson, who crossed for his second of the game but the conversion missed.

Aspatria converted another penalty four minutes later, before Lee Davies made it a 10-point game after touching down at the back of a solid driving maul. Wallbank added the extra two.

Tyldesley went all out in an attempt to close the gap even more, however another lapse by the Bongs defence allowed the visitors to record a fifth converted try, which all but gave them the spoils with just nine minutes remaining.

To their credit, Tyldesley applied pressure in a vain attempt to salvage the game, and received a penalty try for their efforts at the death.