Workington Town regained the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy, scoring the winning try 10 seconds from the final hooter.
Remarkably that try represented the first time they had been in front in the whole game, and the subsequent conversion after the hooter completed an 18-14 victory.
It was typically hard and fiercely contested but Town’s decision to go with more players on the subs bench probably swung the game in their favour over the last 15 minutes.
Whitehaven, playing their first game of pre-season, had opted to go with the usual match-day 17 players and suffered injuries late-on.
The visitors were the better side in the first-half, when they led a tight contest 4-0, and had a good third quarter in which the advantage was stretched to 10-0.
But with half-backs Jamie Doran and Cieran Walker at the heart of everything good and constructive that came from the hosts they got themselves back into the contest and eventually squeezed out a last gasp win.
Town had been reduced to 12 men for a ten-minute spell early in the first half when Marcus O’Brien had been yellow carded for a high tackle.
They held-out well, though, and Whitehaven couldn’t capitalise but strangely, a minute after being back up to strength, Town conceded. It was new boy Dave Eccleston who went over in the corner for an unconverted try after Whitehaven had moved the ball wide smartly.
Six minutes after the break Whitehaven increased the lead when Tom Wilkinson did really well to force his way over for the second try which Conor Holliday converted.
Both sides were down to 12 men on 53 minutes when Town’s Conor Fitzsimmons and Haven’s Nikau Williams were sent for ten minutes in the bin after a scuffle.
Soon after Town reduced the arrears when the lively Walker danced through for a try which was converted by Doran.
On 69 minutes Haven seemed to have grabbed back the initiative when Wilkinson chased a grubber from new Australian Alex Bishop and made the touchdown, but Holliday missed the conversion.
In the last ten minutes and Town were looking the more likely side. A strong run by ex-Wath Brow amateur Curtis Teare set-up a try for Ethan Bickerdyke and Doran’s conversion made it a two-point game.
The momentum was with Town and it became desperate defence from Haven. Then from the last play of the game, with ten seconds left, Evan Simons slipped a pass for Matty Henson to dive in for the try.
Whitehaven have won one or two recent Ike Memorial games with last minute scores, but this time Doran’s last kick of the game was not important apart for the statisticians as it sailed over.
