SAM Jones says the Luctonians players are not thinking about being near the bottom of National 2 League North despite them once again coming up short.

The Kingsland side had an ideal opportunity to gain maximum points against Harrogate last Saturday and led 21-7.

But Lucs allowed their North Yorkshire opponents back in the game before half-time and they never relinquished their lead.

"We're very disappointed considering we were up in the first half," said number eight Jones.

"We seem to do very well to start with then fade away a bit, but it's getting better and better and I'm sure we'll come back even stronger next time.

"That win cannot be far away now.

"We definitely think we are better than our position says and are not thinking about being at the bottom.

"We've just got to work our way back up and we're very confident of doing that and have a very good start to the second half of the season."

Luctonians got off to a flier when winger Adam Knight crashed over in the first minute, with Geraint Langdon converting.

Harrogate responded with a flowing move that saw Sam Bottomley score a try that Joseph Rowntree converted.

But the home side continued to press and were rewarded when John Kelly scored from a catch and drive after Drew Boyde was yellow carded.

Langdon again converted.

Luctonians' lead was increased on the 20 minute mark when a clearance kick was returned by Jimmy Norris, who put debutant Jon Hughes in under the posts.

But that was as good as it got for Lucs and Harrogate kicked over three penalties in six minutes.

Langdon also saw himself in the referee's book as costly errors were penalised.

Harrogate took the lead shortly before half-time through Lewis Minikin, which Rowntree again converted.

The full-back added another penalty before Callum Irvine went over the line.

Another successful Rowntree penalty extended their lead before Norris produced a grandstand finish when he finished off a delightful move for Luctonians. Langdon added a late penalty but it was not to be and the home side had to settle for just the two losing bonus points.

"I think recently we have been getting better and that was obviously evident in the first half," said Luctonians director of rugby Alex Davidson.

"Harrogate are flying quite high and we started the game the better of the two and managed to get three tries.

"But then we let Harrogate start wagging their tails after about 20 minutes and they slowly got back level before half-time.

"Although at that point we were then going to play back at our favourite end towards the club house and had a very simple game plan of kicking the ball long in the corner and playing off that, we failed to execute it until right at the death.

"We managed to get a try bonus point through some individual brilliance from Jimmy Norris, but overall it was disappointing."

Luctonians have risen a place in the league table to 14th due to accumulating two losing bonus points but know they have to pick up maximum points as soon as possible, starting with this Saturday's home game against Stourbridge.

"Stourbridge have got their own problems and are never great fans of travelling here, so we will re-group and go again," said Davidson.

"We let three points drop because I would say five points were there for the taking at half-time, but we picked up two losing bonus points which is good in a way, but again we need a five pointer from somewhere."