Whitehaven saw a half-time lead disappear at the LEL Arena as they went down 24-12 to Halifax Panthers.
It was the ninth win in 10 games by the visitors, a record only marred by last week’s defeat to title-chasing Leigh Centurions.
The Cumbrians showed a lot of spirit throughout and deserved their interval lead of 12-6 but Halifax responded well in the second-half to score 18 unanswered points and collect the win.
The game had started disastrously when Whitehaven didn’t deal with the kick-off, conceded a penalty and Halifax bui8lt a position from which they scored. Ben Tibbs was presented with an opportunity tom go in from close range and Joe Keyes converted.
Haven went right back though, built their own pressure and after a repeat set on the Halifax line Andrew Dawson crashed over and Nikau Williams converted.
That sparked a good spell from the hosts who spent a fair bit of time on the Halifax line and the Panthers had to be solid and effective in their tackling and scrambling defence.
The breakthrough for Haven came on 27 minutes after a Halifax mistake saw Ryan King plough over from short range. Williams converted.
Heavy ran showers were making ball control tricky while several players lost their footing on the greasy surface.
Halifax did have a late chance to score when Keyes set up Woodburn-Hall but he lost the ball as he dived for the line.
The Panthers took only six minutes to get on terms when their best player Keyes produces a lovely delayed pass to send Kavanagh sliding over for the try and he added the conversion himself.
The visitors started to turn the screw as they began to dominate possession and with Keyes pulling the strings they went back in front on 57 minutes with former Whitehaven winger Lachlan Walmsley diving over in the corner to celebrate his birthday. Keyes converted.
Five minutes they scored again. Dan Murray took a short ball from skipper Brandon Moore to crash over. Keyes converted.
Whitehaven enjoyed a fair bit of possession and territory in the closing 10 minutes but a mixture of good Halifax defence and taking wrong options themselves meant they couldn’t close the gap.
