Lincolnshire Bombers U16s still in the hunt for play-offs

Lincolnshire Bombers under-16s travelled to Wigan knowing they needed to win all three games to keep in the national play-off hunt – and they delivered.

After the weekend's results, the Bombers are now joint third in Division North A.

Lincolnshire Bombers U16 beat Wigan Bandits 8-6 and Gateshead Senators 41-18, before defeating Northumberland Vikings 31-33 after a dramatic finale.

Bombers head coach Alan Chambers said: "I asked the players to start quicker and concentrate, and they did. All the games were tough and created different problems.

"We needed to score twice against the Vikings in the last two minutes and stop their free-scoring offence.

"Both the offence stepped up and so did the defence with an important stop to give us the ball back so we could score again."

It was a real team performance with the Bombers defence causing problems all the time, particularly nose tackles Oscar Hardy-Gillings and Charlie Cook, and scoring through two safeties.

Meanwhile, the Bombers offence scored in the air and on the ground in all positions, with touchdowns from centre Eban Lomax, wide receiver Kyle Stephenson and running backs Dave Willumsen, Rory Humphries and Kaehle Toledo.

The Bombers under-16s play their final tournament in Sheffield in two weeks' time knowing another unbeaten weekend will take them to the play-offs as one of the best eight teams in the country.

+ Lincolnshire Bombers first team are now 3-0 on the season after they defeated Humber Warhawks 8-0 in the NFC 2 South at Hull on Sunday, in a tough defensive battle.

The second placed Bombers take on division leaders Scunthorpe Alphas at home next Sunday (June 19), kick-off 2pm.