Furness Raiders picked up their most notable victory of the season so after coming through a cracker of a contest to defeat Hull FC Academy 23-16 at Craven Park.

The Raiders' under-19 team needed to rebuild some momentum ahead of the Christmas break after being well beaten at home in their last fixture against Wakefield College two weeks previously.

And the hosts dug deep on Wednesday afternoon in a match that was high on quality from both sides and remained in the balance right up until the final phase of play.

It was only off the final kick of the game - Max Anderson-Moore's conversion of David Beck's try - that more than one score separated the sides and it rewarded an ending where the Raiders showed the greater composure under pressure.

Coach David Cairns said: "We took the chance to score a try when there was seconds to go when really the plan was to just hold the ball and stay on their line - we didn't mind turning it over on their line so long as we didn't take a chance.

"Off the first tackle, we just needed to control it and get field position, which was vital, because there was nothing in the game - there was a point in it - but we took a chance and we did score.

"I thought it was a great contest, both teams played well and it was a war of attrition; something was going to break and fortunately it went the way of us, but it could have gone either way, that game.

"I'll say again about us learning from these hard games, they're absolutely vital for us to have these games and I'm absolutely chuffed with them."

The ebb and flow of the game didn't take long to click into gear as Furness opened the scoring after just three minutes as the ball went through the hands of Anderson-Moore and Jack Stevenson for Pat Kelly to score in the corner.

Hull hit back, however, through their wingers to turn the game around, with the second of those an exceptional individual 70-metre run by their flyer on the right, which was converted to give them a 10-4 lead.

It was then the hosts' turn to pick up the fight, with Charlie Emslie bursting through to score under the posts to level the match before Harry Gordon picked a lovely line to go in down the right.

Anderson-Moore's penalty put the Raiders 16-10 up at half-time, but an unconverted try early in the second half and a penalty with 11 minutes left tied the game again.

But it was the Raiders who held their nerve, as Anderson-Moore kicked a drop goal from 20 metres out before Stevenson's pass allowed Beck to seal the win.