LYDNEY could and should have won. Throwing away a 16 points advantage the Severnsiders paid dearly for taking wrong options.
Two clear-cut overlaps were neglected in favour of aimless kicks, and there is ongoing controversy over a yellow card incident involving a Dings forward which resulted in an uncontested scrum only five yard from the Bristol team's line.
Credit, however, to the visitors for coming back from the brink. Lesser teams might have folded from a seemingly hopeless deficit and they outscored Lydney by four tries to two. It was a hard one for the Regentsholme faithful to swallow as the winning points came from a penalty goal kicked by former home team favourite Adam Wastall just a couple of minutes from full time.
Lydney's performance was patchy and they still have to gel. Overall, they looked a neater unit than last season with two super strike runners in wingers Nev Codlin and Andy McCrea.
Fans were anxious to see more of Codlin who set the game alight with a superb individual try. Left wingers usually get more ball than those on the right but Codlin was largely neglected as time after time the ball went McCrea's way.
Team manager Colin Henderson said that while the result was disappointing there was plenty to build on.
"We have a very difficult start with tough away games. We never expected it to be easy and the team still has to blend. There are still players to come in and there is no panic," he said.
"We anticipate a very tight league and results will be decided by narrow margins. Both the games we have lost have been by single scores so there is much to play for."
Lydney: Tries: Codlin, Holder. Cons: Wicks (2); pens: Wicks (3); drop goal: Wicks.
Dings: Tries: Wright-Hider, Brockett, Curry, Jones. Cons: Westall (2); Pens: Westall.