On the face of it a 58-10 defeat at Halifax was another dismal defeat in an increasingly underwhelming return to the Championship for Workington Town.
But there was at least evidence in the first-half of a committed performance from Town who came back level 6-6 on 20 minutes.
They enjoyed a period of pressure, too, around this time and Halifax had to defend well to deny the Cumbrians a second score.
Halifax, in contention for third place in the Championship had been rattled by Town’s endeavour but some old deficiencies came back to haunt Chris Thorman’s men.
Defensively Town rather folded in the closing ten minutes and Halifax scored three tries, two of them converted for a 22-6 lead.
The start of the second-half was a total disaster for Town as within seven minutes they had conceded two more converted tries.
It was familiar territory by now for Town – damage limitation – as Halifax started to rack up the points.
They had scored 10 tries of which John Keyes converted nine. He also entered the record books for scoring most points in a game for Halifax – 34 as he also went in for four tries.
With the last move of the match there was a second try for Town as some consolation when Alex Clegg went in at the corner.
The first try had come from their best player Conor Fitzsimmons after a series of penalties had put them in range and he stretched out to score. Oscar Thomas converted.
