LUCTONIANS second row forward Michael Cheasley felt individual errors cost his team as they went down to a disappointing 25-19 defeat against Preston Grasshoppers.

Lucs have now only won once this season in National League 2 North, including four out of five games at Mortimer Park. And a bitterly disappointing first-half performance meant they were always chasing the game against Preston in a match played in difficult conditions.

"I think we should have got the win, it was just a case of individual errors in the first half, especially in the first 20 minutes, that killed us a bit, so we had to chase the game before we even started," said Cheasley.

"It was hard to keep hold of the ball at times, but you just get on with it and it's sometimes easier to play in because you concentrate more.

"We need to get some wins and get the fans back down here and kick on."

Preston scored a vital try on the stroke of half-time to take a 13 point lead, moments after Louis Silver kicked over a penalty for Lucs.

"To be fair, it spurred us on a little bit, but it shouldn't take that," admitted Cheasley.

Luctonians director of rugby Alex Davidson agreed that his team were poor in the first half.

"We got a good point up at Caldy and I honestly thought, with the problems Preston had this year with their young squad, we would turn the screw and get the win," said Davidson.

"We warmed up well, but unbeknown to the coaching staff, we failed to get going in the first 20 minutes.

"But playing in these conditions is a game of chance, you've got to play in the right areas to get your reward and Preston did that.

"They got the ball off kicks into our 22 and we made some silly mistakes which gave them a big lead going into half-time.

"We did get a reaction in the second half and if the game had gone on for another 10 minutes, we could have snatched the win, but it was just too little, too late."

Preston opened the scoring after just three minutes thanks to a Sean Taylor penalty before Silver levelled the match with a penalty of his own five minutes later.

But a fortuitous bounce led to Christian Taylor crashing over for Preston after 14 minutes, which Sean Taylor converted.

Another try followed after 25 minutes when Pete Altham went over, which Taylor again converted to put the away side 17-3 up. Silver kicked over another penalty to reduce the deficit to 11 points before he got his side back into the game with another fantastic kick shortly before half-time.

But, Preston hit back straight away to score a try from Alex Zavallis-Roebuck to go into the break 22-9 in front.

To their credit, Luctonians came out strongly in the second half and scored a try through John Morris following a great break after 47 minutes.

Silver converted the try to reduce the deficit to just six points.

But, after missing a penalty on the hour mark, Taylor put Preston nine points clear with another three-pointer.

Lucs battled valiantly to get themselves back into the game but only had a Silver penalty to show for their efforts.