Cockermouth celebrated long into the night after a superb 29-17 home win over Warrington improved their North Two West position.
It was also to reflect and enjoy the progress the team has made through the first half of the season, winless and struggling to buoyant and successful.
They have now won five of their last six games and have now settled down confidently to find their rhythm and consistency at this level.
Once again Cockermouth were outstanding in the way they started the game, dominating both in attack and defence, whilst maintaining excellent discipline.
Playing against the wind the forwards dominated and the backs were continuously on the front foot.
The sustained forward pressure opened up the Warrington defence with Ed Gate finding Luke Armstrong on the wing and he did the rest with a cool finish. It was Gate who added the extras with a splendid touchline conversion.
The pack again led from the front with vice captain James Hunter and club captain Sam Wilson setting the tempo and a well executed driving maul ended with Wilson touching down.
Five minutes into time added on Warrington had their first chance in the Wasps 22 near the line and it was huge credit to the home side’s defensive effort that they couldn’t get over and only took the opportunity to kick a penalty.
With a 12-3 interval lead the first 20 minutes of the second half continued to be positive for the Wasps, maintaining their dominance in attack and defence, as well as their discipline.
Next to score was Ian McDowell after good forward work from a line-out where Ant Davis got a good stand and the forwards bundled their way over.
Soon after another driving maul was rumbled up the touchline and James Sewell spotted a gap to surge over from 22 yards out.
After such a huge effort the intensity levels of the Wasps game started to tail-off and Warrington came into the game, scoring a try under the posts.
Fortunately for the Wasps the pack found another big effort to rumble into the Warrington 22 where John Irving came on a great line from deep and a well-timed pass from Mark Watson put him in under the posts for a 29-10 lead.
Warrington were last to score from a well-executed move but it couldn’t diminish a fine Cockermouth performance.
