SWINTON Lions missed the chance to close the gap to safety at the bottom of the Championship when they went down 26-18 to Sheffield Eagles at Heywood Road last Sunday.

If the Lions had held on to their 10-point half-time lead and used their extra man advantage, they could have ended the game just four points behind the Eagles and safety.

Instead, it was Sheffield who returned after the interval full of zeal and wiped out the disadvantage while they were down a player and, ultimately, Heywood Road reverberated to the sounds of 'we are staying up' from the Eagles fans at the end.

Swinton now lie seven points behind Barrow above them, with just 10 points left to play for and ominously, games with Leigh and Featherstone still lying ahead in the Championship Shield.

First-half tries from Joe Brown and Rob Fairclough, both converted by the latter plus a penalty for an incident that saw Eagles’ Oscar Thomas sin-binned, gave the Lions a 14-4 lead at half time.

It was, however, Sheffield who came to the fore in the second spell and, inspired by Simon Brown, they swiftly added to Menzie Yere’s sole first-half effort.

Brown crossed twice for Sheffield, swiftly followed by James Bentley and Jon Magrin.

The Lions only offered a Mike Butt try in response and now have a week off prior to the home clash with Rochdale Hornets.