Otley 10, Leicester Lions 29 

OTLEY'S plans were in disarray when three more key players joined the injury list, and it worsened in this National League Two North clash when fly half Joshua Cruise exited on 20 minutes with a nasty knee injury.

The marksman was on hand, however, to land a 42-metre penalty in the second minute to give the home side the lead on their 150th anniversary, and minutes later a break by scrum half Stephen Depledge - his first of many - set his backs moving.

But, unfortunately, winger Alexander Beaumont was brought back for a forward pass.

Otley were then unfortunate when, sweeping purposefully out of their half, they had a pass ruled forward.

From the subsequent scrum, the Lions forced a line-out from which a series of drives ended with hooker Oliver Taylor crashing over.

Fly half William Bishop failed to improve the lead with a 40-metre penalty attempt but the visitors began to exert pressure, eventually finding a way through with flanker Robert Young going in at the posts to give Bishop a simple conversion.

Three minutes later, he was given a penalty from the same position.

Winning a line-out, however, Otley moved the ball confidently, centre Michael Coady forcing his way through to feed Beaumont, who went in at the corner, new boy Sam Allan, playing at full back, stepping up to reduce the margin to 15-10.

But just before the break, Coady was unluckily yellow carded for a suspected tip tackle.

For most of the second half, Otley dominated territorially but it was Lions who did the scoring, scrum half Adam Shaw, escaping when receiving bad ball at a line-out, running in from halfway and flanker Oliver Pavoas being driven over, with Bishop converting both.