Western Force's home hoodoo has continued, with the Lions ending their own miserable run on the road to record a tense 25-24 win at a sweltering Subiaco Oval.

Andre Pretorius made the perfect comeback to Lions colours, kicking a penalty with 20 seconds left to consign the Force to a second successive home loss.

With the temperature still topping 33 degrees at kick off, the game got off to a blistering start.

Within a minute the Lions thought they had their first try, with Cobus Grobbelaar the man denied, but from the resultant scrum the Force were penalised and Strydom kicked his first.

From the restart, sparkling handling looked to have put Force centre Junior Pelesasa over, but referee Bryce Lawrence ruled it out for a marginal forward pass on the advice of his touch judge.

Another Strydom penalty was followed by another passage of Force handling which put Cameron Shepherd in the clear - only to be called for a forward pass, this time from Pelesasa.

Having been denied twice, the Force were hit by a sucker punch on 15 minutes, Jaco Pretorius' chip through forcing a mistake from Drew Mitchell, allowing Fourie to gobble up the bouncing ball and stroll over.

Although the home crowd was stunned, John Mitchell's philosophy of 'win it then spin it' was still plan A, and Ryan Cross the focal point.

With Cross in every Force foray, it was he who drew two Lions defenders before putting Shepherd over in the corner for his third try of the year.

And then an instinctive break from Mitchell, allowed Matt Hodgson to set Gareth Hardy away for his second spectacular try in as many weeks.

Another Shepherd penalty extended the lead to five at the main break, and Force fans were beginning to dream.

But a change of Lions front row personnel increased their intensity, and the Force began to make crucial errors.

With Strydom regaining a one point lead for his side with the penalty, Matt Henjak was sin-binned for preventing Jano Vermaak scoring from a quick tap.

But in the next ten minutes, the Force did not concede a point, actually regaining the lead through Shepherd's third penalty.

Henjak's reintroduction coincided with the return of Pretorius from injury, and his influence was immediate with a long range drop goal giving the Lions back the slimmest of leads.

And after he and Shepherd had traded missed penalties, the Force winger kicked truly from 49 metres to seemingly end the Force fans year-long wait to see their team win in blue.

But Lawrence then penalised Henjak for leaving his feet in the ruck, and Pretorius made no mistake, ending the Lions' 22-game losing streak on the road, stretching back to April 2001.

Force skipper Nathan Sharpe said the Force had no-one to blame but themselves for a poor second half.

"I think we just went into our shells too much, and we sort of play half and half football, not sure whether to throw a pass or not," Sharpe said.

"We just turned it over, and our execution was just terrible.

"We just let them stay in the game, and put pressure on."

Coach John Mitchell said the error count and indiscipline that cost his side the game was unacceptable.

"It was disappointing and not acceptable from us ... our discipline in tackle contests tonight was put in question by the number of penalties in kickable range," Mitchell said.

"I thought we had grown a lot as a group in the last two weeks ... at times tonight we chose to be an individual."

Lions coach Eugene Eloff said breaking the six-year drought away from Johannesburg was a huge result.

"There has been a big stigma of us not touring well, but I told the boys before we left the field is the same width, it is the same rules so don't make a big issue of flying," Eloff said.

"Just go out and play ... don't think about jetlag and all those negative things."

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