Lancashire's visit to Chester ended in a narrow win, thanks to 11 points from Chris Johnson's boot and tries from captain Evan Stewart and replacement lock Paul Arnold.
Head coach Mark Nelson was wary in the days beforehand of the threat posed by Cheshire, and so it proved, as the home side's early pressure showed with two penalties, before Stewart led by example and powered over from a five-metre scrum soon after the second restart.
Johnson converted and added a penalty on the half hour mark for a 10-6 lead at the break. That penalty came after Cheshire's number 8 Ford had been yellow carded.
Still with the numerical advantage, Paul Arnold added Lancashire's second try after a Cheshire line-out. Johnson missed the conversion, so that left the scoreline at 18-6 with half an hour to play.
Debutant winger Jordan Dorrington's yellow card on the hour mark gave the hosts the advantage, and Forbes Edward's try from a five-metre scrum reduced their deficit at a time when their forwards were enjoying a period of dominance.
Johnson's final kick of the game stretched the lead, until Jack Lavin dotted down between the posts five minutes from time to convert his own score, but Cheshire were unable to add to this, leaving a narrow win for Nelson's men to take into their game at Blaydon next Saturday.