North Wales Crusaders’ search for the Betfred League One title will now focus on their trip to Rochdale next weekend as Carl Forster’s side suffered just their second defeat this season at the hands of Swinton Lions.
In a physical encounter at Stadiwm CSM, the visitors did well to capitalise on Crusaders’ errors, making them pay on each occasion whilst North Wales were met with stern defence from a Lions side who had already defeated them in 2025.
The opening exchanges set the tone for the rest of the afternoon with both sides combining hard hitting tackles with powerful runs as they looked to take control of the game.
With Crusaders working their way into the game against a dogged Swinton side, they were setback as the defence failed to deal with a high kick on the last tackle, dropping the ball allowing Jordan Paga to open the scoring.
Reeling from their mistake just minutes earlier, the home side were punished for another shortly after as Jack Stephens was quickest to react to a kick behind, taking the ball over the line to double the away side’s lead.
Determined to get themselves back into the game, Crusaders pressured the Lion’s defence. Jordy Gibson and Chris Barratt both looked to have grounded the ball only for the officials to rule the efforts out before Sam Wilde made it third time lucky powering his way through leaving no doubt as he grounded the ball.
Despite attempts to make further inroads into the deficit, Forster’s side came unstuck once again in the final minute of the first-half as an uncharacteristic error saw the ball dropped which allowed Frank Sergent to run 70 meters to score.
The second-half saw Crusaders re-gain focus as they went in search of the game, testing the Swinton defence, finding themselves held up over the line on several occasions.
Eventually, they broke the line as a trademark move to the wing found Ollie Brookes who dove over in the corner.
With 12 minutes remaining, the fight-back looked on as clever play saw a looping pass find Jack Holmes in space to score, levelling the try tally at three a piece, but Crusaders trailed 18-12 due to failed conversion attempts.
As the hosts chased the game they camped themselves in the Swinton half, however, much as had been the story of the game, a dropped pass left the ball waiting to be collected and it was the visitors who did so as Harry Higham raced 50 meters to score what proved to be the final score of the afternoon.