HEAD coach Will Croker praised a controlled Bournemouth display as the Chapel Gate side kept alive their slim promotion hopes with an 11-10 victory at Hornets.

Lions clocked up their first National Three South West win since before Christmas at the Weston-super-Mare club with scrum-half Sam Hardcastle grabbing the visitors' only try on a boggy reserve-team pitch.

Hardcastle, Bournemouth's record points scorer, sent his team into the interval 5-0 up after he seized on a loose ball and sprinted 80m to touch down.

Kieron Hill kicked a successful penalty after the break but fell short with another, Hardcastle gratefully retrieving the long-range effort.

A subsequent penalty at the other end by Sammy Veneroso made it through via the post and extended to 8-3 the Bournemouth lead.

In the latter stages, Lions were briefly reduced to 13 men when Grant Hancox succumbed to a rib injury and Sam Moreton was sin-binned but a Joe Gwyther penalty gave them further reward.

Hornets' Chris Francis crossed the whitewash in the closing seconds but Hill's conversion proved the final act.

A buoyant Croker told the Daily Echo: "It's good to win on the road. It's a horrible place to go because there are no straight roads on the way up and it's a really long trip.

"We had to play on their third-team pitch which was a 10-minute walk from the clubhouse and it all felt a little bit disjointed.

"They are the first team we have done the double over this season and there won't be many teams that do that this year.

"It didn't really feel like we nicked the win. We played with so much more control than we had previously, we stole a lot of their line-outs and dominated scrums at the start.

"What was pleasing was that we learned lessons from the narrow defeat to Exmouth last week. We had the opportunity to give Hornets the initiative at the beginning of the second half but we didn't.

"There were some huge performances. Sam Bailey was fantastic in the second row, Joe Gwyther gave us a real control at fly-half and Sam Hardcastle's try was typical of him, a counter-thrust. Overall, it was a really good team performance."

Croker was unsure on the extent of the damage to Hancox but admitted that he expected matters to become clearer in the next 24 hours.

The boss added: "We're not too sure what the injury is at the moment.

"Grant got tackled from behind and felt it, so he came off and we tried to patch him up.

"The physio thought he was okay to go back on but he made a clearing kick and as soon as he did, he was in all sorts of agony.

"We think it might be some sort of rib cartilage damage but we will get it assessed and will know more on Tuesday."

Lions: Veneroso, Chandler, Hancox, Chislett, Roberts, Gwyther, Hardcastle, Tarrant, Fraser, Firetto, Peart, Bailey, Hennings, Allman, Rees. Replacements: Kochanowski, Moreton, Sutherland.