YORK Acorn were indebted to a hat-trick of tries by centre Ryan Gallacher as they claimed a hard-fought 36-22 home win in the National Conference first division.

A youthful and enthusiastic Castleford Lock Lane side pushed Acorn all the way in this opening league encounter.

However, surging second-half runs by props Joshua Mortimer and Tim Stubbs, allied to the speeding up of the play the balls and an improved completion rate, allowed the hosts to earn the spoils.

That was despite the 67th minute sending off of winger Joshua Thompson – for alleged referee abuse after he had initially been yellow carded.

Despite that, far too often Acorn were guilty of not completing their sets in the first half, due mainly to losing the ball early in the tackle count – with the chief culprit being silly offloads.

Lock Lane were the first to get on the scoreboard when, on 10 minutes, they managed to create space on Acorn's left wing and winger Luke Hands went in at the corner for an unconverted try.

Acorn responded when Gallacher nipped in for his first try on 14 minutes, pouncing onto a Tim Elliott grubber through kick behind the Cas side's try line.

Although the try was unconverted, Acorn had tied the scores at 4-4.

On 18 minutes, Acorn moved into a six-point lead when winger Thompson intercepted and stretched his long legs to race in from 80 metres for a try to which Anthony Chilton added the extras.

Lock Lane drew level on 31 minutes, however, following a mix up from an Acorn scrum in their own 20.

Somehow the ball popped out on the visitors' side and quick hands enabled their centre Oliver Bloomer to go in for a try, which was converted by Connor Land to restore parity.

More misfortune befell the home side on 38 minutes.

Land attempted to put a lofted kick into the Acorn in-goal area and it was deflected by the blocking hands of Acorn centre Matthew Woods into the grateful hands of Joe Willock, who grounded the ball for a try

Land added the extras to give the visitors a 16-10 advantage.

The game swung Acorn's way on the back of a 20-minute period at the start of the second half when they blitzed Lock Lane.

Unlike the opening moments of the first half, Acorn started well and had Lock Lane on the back foot from the off.

On 43 minutes, a high up and under was clutched by Thompson who offloaded to Gallacher to cross for his second try and edge Acorn closer.

The conversion attempt crashed off the posts, but Acorn did get their noses in front on 53 minutes when acting half James Mountford went over for an unconverted try which put them 18-16 in front.

Acorn had the bit between their teeth, and edged further in front on 58 minutes when the outstanding Mortimer burst clear on the halfway line before racing 30 metres to send Joe Budd under the posts. Chilton added the extras.

On 62 minutes, Acorn appeared to have sewn up the game when Elliott put Gallacher into space and he did the rest from 20 yards out to notch his hat-trick score.

Chilton's goal put Acorn into a commanding 30-16 lead heading into the final quarter.

But back came the visitors when quick hands out wide enabled Hands to race in for a try which Land added the extras to.

Then came Thompson's aberration, closely followed by some crucial last ditch tackles – most notably by Budd on Willock when it appeared he was destined to score.

Acorn managed to reassert themselves on 74 minutes when Mountford made a darting break at the heart of the Lock Lane defence before sending Brandon Harris charging over.

Chilton added the extras to complete the scoring and rubber-stamp the hosts' victory.