Workington Town duly finished second behind champions Barrow in the League One regular season.
But Chris Thorman’s men will take a disturbing run of form into the play-offs with three defeats in their last four games – two of them at Derwent Park.
The latest came this afternoon when they went down 32-14 to Hunslet, failing to score in the second-half after leading 14-12 at the break.
Town had been first to score on ten minutes after Hunslet’s Simon Brown had been sin-binned and Brad Holroyd went over in the corner with Carl Forber putting over his only goal of the game.
The lead was held until the 25th minute when Hunslet rounded-off a spell of strong pressure with a try from Mike Wood which was converted by .
There didn’t seem to be any indications of the disasters to come when Town regained the lead on half an hour when Joe Brown followed-up a clever kick by Jamie Doran to gather the bounce and score.
Once more Hunslet levelled with a try from Alex Rowe which was converted before Brown scored his second try for Town just before half-time.
It only took three minutes of the second half for Hunslet to take the lead as they went onto score 20 unanswered points in the second-half.
Duane Straugheir was followed over the Town line by Reece Chapman-Smith and Lewis Young with Dominic Brambani adding four goals.
It was a disappointing finale for Town fans who had turned out to support the team but also to remember two former club heroes in a Go Red for Kev day – ex-player Kevin Gartland and keen fan Kevin Lever who both died during the pandemic.