Water Polo: Disappointing weekend hits Lancaster's Super 5s hopes

Glen Robinson. Picture: Martin Henfield.

Despite this, all is not lost and Lancaster still have an outside chance of reclaiming the Super 5s title they last won back in 2011.

On Saturday, Lancaster took on Bristol in their opening match of the weekend with it turning out to be a high-scoring affair as the two sides shared 33 goals.

As an attacking force, Lancaster turned in one of their best performances of the season to-date with goals coming at regular intervals.

Tom Curwen led the way with eight goals with other contributions coming from Alex Parsonage, with four goals and Glen Robinson and Graham Harrington who both bagged two each.

The final goal came from 18-year-old Jordan Titley who scored his first Super 5s goal on a good weekend for some of the club’s junior players.

Unfortunately for Lancaster their attacking exploits were not matched in defence with numerous errors across the whole squad resulting in Lancaster only managing to scrape home 17-16.

The following day Lancaster looked to complete a perfect weekend when they took on current champions Cheltenham.

Cheltenham started brightly with goals from Olympians Rob Parker and Jake Vincent helping them establish a 5-2 advantage by the end of the first period.

Worse was to follow for the Salt Ayre side as Cheltenham continued to dominate and extended their lead to 8-2 by half-time.

Lancaster re-grouped after the interval but the damage was done and despite two goals each from Curwen, Robinson and Harrington plus a goal apiece from juniors Mason and Coussutti, Cheltenham ran out comfortable 12-8 winners.

The final weekend of the season is at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, on February 12 and 13 when Lancaster will need to repeat their victories from earlier in the season against Manchester and Invicta to stand any chance of reclaiming their title.

They do however also have to hope that Cheltenham slip up against either Bristol or Manchester, the reigning champions having lost to the latter during the round of fixtures at Salt Ayre earlier this month.