HEAD coach Will Croker watched Bournemouth surrender a winning position against Old Redcliffians and then admitted his side should have secured victory.

Lions had held a two-point advantage at Chapel Gate with seven minutes to go but a try from the Bristol-based team allowed them to grab a 16-13 triumph.

It was Bournemouth's first defeat of the season in National Three South West and Croker felt the result could easily have been different.

He told the Daily Echo: "We dominated large periods and perhaps didn't get our reward for that dominance, which was partly down to them defending well and partly down to us not being accurate enough in the strike zone.

"In the backs, a lot of ball hit the grass rather than going to hand. We would get to four or five phases and then run out of support and therefore they would turn the ball over.

"But we still should have won. We had a try disallowed which Wyn Roberts was absolutely convinced he had scored and we missed two kicks which I would have expected Jack Parsons to get nine times out of 10.

"We turned down two penalties to try and go for tries by kicking for the corner so there was a little bit of naivety there. Sometimes in games that you know are going to be tight, you take the points and regroup.

"There were positives to take from it but we know we should have won. We just have to become a little bit more streetwise."

Fly-half Parsons put Lions three points in front early on but a try by the visitors and a subsequent penalty from Ashley Groves put Redcliffians 8-3 ahead at half-time.

Just after the break, Grant Hancox burst through to score under the posts and Parsons's conversion allowed Lions to inch ahead.

Referee Adam Wookey then controversially ruled out a Roberts effort and Groves kicked Redcliffians back in front at the other end.

Parsons returned the favour but a matter of minutes later, the away side crossed the whitewash out wide, which proved the decisive score.

Alex Sutherland is due to be assessed tomorrow after withdrawing due to a head injury in the first half.

Lions: Sutherland, Chandler, Higgins, Chislett, Roberts, Parsons, Hancox, Osborne, Benham, Firetto, Warwick, Soden, Kochanowski, Cawley, Rees. Replacements: Allman, Bailey, Hardcastle.