A LAST-gasp drop goal from Ryan Johnston saw Furness Raiders snatch a thrilling 25-24 victory over Wakefield College in their first home game of the College Rugby League Premier division on Wednesday evening.

Dalton amateur Johnston had already enjoyed a perfect night with the boot, kicking five out of five conversions to make Wakefield pay for failing to do likewise from any of the six tries they scored in the match.

The visitors may have been forgiven for thinking they had earned at least a draw from the contest though when hat-trick hero Zanye Cloete went over in the dying minutes, but Furness were able to win the ball back from the restart and set up Johnston to boot over the winning point.

The Raiders made a positive start and forced a turnover on the second tackle of the game, but a combination of some ferocious defence from Wakefield plus errors both kicking and with the ball in hand from the hosts meant they were unable to capitalise.

Indeed, the away side began to assert their authority and took the lead when hard-running second row Nathan Newbound found centre Cloete out wide to finish off a swift attack with an unconverted score after nine minutes.

Wakefield hooker Henry Hiddlestone was then able to shrug off several would-be tacklers as he powered his way to the line for a second unconverted try in the 19th minute.

Some strong tackling from Scott Beattie and defence-sapping runs from Ethan Furness helped the Raiders gain a foothold as the half wore on though, only Eric Hill knocking on close to the line after being wrapped up by several Wakefield defenders and then Aidan Wright spilling the ball as he dived over.

But the home side did get on the board just before the half-time whistle sounded when scrum-half Johnston fooled Wakefield with an outrageous dummy and scampered through to dot down, along with adding the extras to make the score 8-6 at the interval.

Wakefield restored their two-score lead within two minutes of the restart when Callum Hudson went over out wide, only for the Furness half-backs Johnston and Jake Carter to combine to send interchange man Matty Brown smashing his way through for a converted try to level the scores.

And although the away side went back ahead thanks to another unconverted try, this time from Adam Golding in the corner, the Raiders took the lead for the first time midway through the half when they worked the ball out to Tyler Batty on the touchline for him to race in and Johnston to converted from out wide.

A second unconverted try from Cloete edged Wakefield back ahead, but the Raiders were in again soon after through Danny Wright and Johnston again landed the conversion to give them a four-point lead.

Yet although Cloete was able to collect a cross-field kick from Stephen Gibbs to dot down for his third of the match, there was still time for Furness to restart, win back the ball from a short kick-off and work into position for Johnston to land a drop goal from over 35 metres, sparking wild celebrations from the hosts.

Furness Raiders: Jake Stockdale; Aidan Wright, Tyler Lancaster, Owen Myers, James Lashmar; Jake Carter, Ryan Johnston; Scott Beattie, Rowan Smedley, Ben Atkinson, Eric Hill, Ethan Furness, Declan Rodgers. Interchange: Blain Marwood, Tyler Batty, Matty Brown, Danny Wright, Josh Rankin.

Wakefield College: Kian Morgan; Junior Njoh Njoh, Ryan Strafford, Zanye Cloete, Callum Hudson; Coleby Colethorpe, Stephen Gibbs; Arvydas Serinka, Henry Hiddlestone, Aaron Yorke, Nathan Newbound, Charlie Frost, Shaun Jordan. Interchange: Tom Halliwell, Jacob Jones, Bob Jowitt, James Sjlvck, Tyrone Matterson, Lee Kershaw, Adam Golding.