By Leipziger
November 13 2011

I can't drink like I used to any more like. Yesterday's potential 14 hours of drinking was whittled down to about eight but after a sleepless Friday night I am paying for it today.

Still, eight lads walking into a curry house on a Saturday night is always going to make the owner happy so there was a good deed done.

A post-match night out is always far better after a win of course and yesterday the Falcons got their latest European adventure off to a four-point start. Neutrals will not have enjoyed what was a pretty poor match though.

Lyon got over mumps early last week so we had a game to watch yesterday, and Jeremy Manning wore the number 10 shirt for the Falcons while Ashley Wells and Redford Pennycook got starts, and Ryan Shortland returned from injury.

On a day that saw the Falcons offer free tickets to current and former servicemen and women, to universal support, the match was preceded by a bugelier playing The Last Post on the pitch.

Just a couple of minutes in Manning put us ahead with a penalty but Lyon's Eric Tomamichel equalised. This set the tone for a scrappy game littered with penalties.

Tim Swinson dived over for the first try, settling a few nerves (perhaps), and though Manning missed the conversion he soon kicked a second penalty following a high tackle in the away 22.

The Falcons lost Corne Uys after less than 20 minutes, the centre looking angry as he accompanied a physio off the field to be replaced by James Fitzpatrick.

Lyon scored two penalties but lost Arnaud Dorier to the sin bin approaching the half hour, and the game started to get niggly, later graduating to violent on the part of the French side.

Just before half time a move across the pitch almost yielded a try for Rikki Sheriffe but the scoring pass went behind him and into touch.

Fitzpatrick scrambled in for a try on the far right on half-time, Manning again failing to convert. The Falcons looked comfortable though - as has been said, Lyon weren't very good.

After half-time Jordi Pasqualin raced through a gap in the French defence to score our third try.

Lyon hit back with a converted try by Nicolas Bontinck and an angry James Hudson tried to rally his charges, though he couldn't do much about the quiet crowd.

The game began to descend into farce with penalty after penalty given, generally to the defending team I think, but entertaining the second half wasn't.

Lyon got our lead down to just two points with a penalty but lost Alipate Fatafehi to a yellow card for crashing into home replacement Greg Goosen off the ball.

A further card came just minutes before the end. A mass brawl involving a fair amount of punching by Lyon's number 19 in particular erupted in front of the East Stand. I'm not sure but I think the Falcons' waterboy may have been in there somewhere.

Anyway, Bontinck was binned and the Falcons sent Lyon home with nothing thanks to Manning rediscovering his shooting boots and scoring two further penalties.

So with Toulon in our group, getting to the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup will be, well, a challenge, especially since the Falcons missed out on a bonus point yesterday.

But more important is getting some momentum and confidence for the next league matches, and hopefully a good win on Saturday will ensure that.