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Swinton scrape through in extra time

31/ 1/2001

AN EXTRA time victory over Hull amateur side Skirlaugh has meant Swinton can look forward to a decent crowd at Gigg Lane.

That's the upshot of Monday night's Challenge Cup draw, which pitted the winners of last night's (Wednesday) re-arranged third round clash against Super League new boys Widnes Vikings.

But the Lions made hard work of securing the money-spinning tie. Trailing 14-12 at half time to the rookies, they levelled the match at 18-18 before the hooter, and had to rely on extra time to run out 32-24 winners.

The Bulls led 12-0 before tries from Nanyn and Fitzpatrick pulled them back into the contest. Nanyn scored again in the second half, and seemed to have booked his side a place in round four. But Thacker raced home in the closing minutes to send the tie into the extra period.

The visitors ran out of steam though, allowing Al Shea, Mike Woods and Jason Roach to touch down and wrap up the victory.

Sunday's game was called off due to the state of the pitch at Gigg Lane - the Lions' fourth postponement of the season.

And with a Northern Ford Premiership match at Gateshead on Sunday - it was hardly ideal preparation for Tony Humphries' men that they should be left twiddling their thumbs again.

The North East side, like Swinton, are still without a win this season - although they have managed seven games to the Lions' four. On Sunday they were bundled out of the cup 23-7 by Featherstone Rovers.