Betfred League One: Coventry Bears 20 London Skolars 28

London Skolars were made to work hard for a 28-20 victory at Coventry Bears in Betfred League One, having to mount a comeback in the second half.

Skolars had taken the lead after three minutes, with Billy Driver darting over from dummy half.

However, Coventry’s backs started to show their pace as Dante Morley-Williams eluded the left-hand defence to score in the corner.

It took an ankle tap from Jy-Mel Coleman to deny the home side a few minutes later, but London extended their lead when Lamont Bryan finished off a break by Quinn Ngawati.

Another Morley-Samuels’ break opened a gap for Kam Pearce-Paul to score and Bears took the lead when Hayden Freeman scored down the other wing.

The 14-12 deficit at half-time worsened when Skolars conceded an early penalty that led to Morley-Samuels adding his second try of the afternoon three minutes after the restart.

London benefitted from a penalty themselves three minutes later, getting good field position, with full-back Elliot Hall joining the attacking line to split the defence.

Neil Thorman’s conversion levelled the scores at 18-18.

Coventry edged ahead through a penalty on the hour, but chose to run a kickable penalty after Jerome Yates was sin-binned for obstruction.

Skolars’ defence held firm and they started to take control of the game with some good runs by Bryan and Michael Sykes.

London were still down to 12 men when they create a gap on the left for Vinny Finigan to touchdown in the corner which put them two points ahead.

Soon after Yates returned to the field, Skolars made certain of victory when Ryan Chester pushed his way through the defence, with Thorman adding the conversion.

London are at home on Saturday when they take on Doncaster at the New River Stadium.

Despite Skolars being away last weekend, the venue still saw some action with Betfred Championship side Toronto Wolfpack beating Halifax 42-10 in a ‘home’ game.