Lions off to a flyer!

And the importance of the performance was not lost on coach Paul Kidd.

"The guy's concentrated well and kept on their game," he said: "We scored some nice tries and stopped them from scoring in the second half."

Lions took the lead in the fourth minute when Mick Coates and Warren Ayres combined to send Chris Maye racing over in the left hand corner, but Ayres missed the conversion.

But after some intense pressure Thunder got on the scoreboard in the 18th minute.

Steven Bradley sent Kevin Neighbour racing in at the corner and Paul Thorman added the goal points to put the visitors in the lead.

From a penalty the Lions swept down field and Peter Cannon sent centre Mark Bolton in at the corner, but again Ayres could not add the kick.

Four minutes later Liku, Ayres and Maye combined to send Sinfield over by the posts, this time Ayres was successful with the conversion.

Again Thunder would not lie down, and Robin Peers scored an unconverted second try.

Three minutes from the break Cushion, Bolton and Roach combined to get Cannon over by the posts for the fourth Lions' try, and with Ayres converting the Lions took a 10 point lead into the break.

Four minutes into the second half Sinfield was sent off for a swinging arm in the tackle on Paul Thorman.

However, this only served to inspire the Lions, and Wayne English was the next to score a try in the 55th minute, with Ayres adding the goal points.

Bolton collected his second try five minutes later and again Ayres converted.

Sarfraz Patel was next to race over and Paul Ashton this time added the goal points.

Ashton was sent to the sin-bin nine minutes from time for back chatting the official, yet despite now being down to 11 men it was the Lions who again raised their game to score the final try courtesy of Maye, with a couple of minutes left.

LIONS: English, Roach, Bolton, Maye, Irwin, Coates, Ayers, Loughlin, Cannon, Wingfield, Cushion, Smith, Sinfield. Subs: Ashton, Patel, Whittaker, Liku