Despite an impressive surge in the last 20 minutes, Workington fell painfully short of registering their maiden win of the season.
The Zebras went down 40 – 30 to Millom in monsoon conditions at The Ellis in this Counties 1 Cumbria game.
It was a match that Workington should have won, but a combination of missed kicks and concentration lapses cost them dearly and a bonus point barely softens the blow.
The Zebras proceeded to swamp their visitors’ half direct from kick off and within two minutes David Wordsworth was ploughing home for the opening unconverted try.
Millom quickly recovered and three minutes later took the lead after exerted scrummaging saw them go under the posts to set up an easy conversion.
Workington were determined to make a game of this and on 11 minutes regained the lead when well executed scrummaging of their own ended with Wordsworth going over for a second unconverted try.
For a while it looked as if the Zebras would increase their lead, with Wordsworth, Worsley and the McCrickerd brothers producing dangerous surges into Millom territory, only thwarted by dogged but efficient tackling.
However, after absorbing the pressure Millom snatched back the lead on 25 minutes after a fluid pass-and-move sequence cut through the Zebras back-line to produce an unconverted, but well taken try,
Both sides exchanged penalties – Millom on 31 minutes to increase their lead again and then four minutes before the break John McCrickerd clinically dispatched a kick that reduced the arrears to just two points.
Suddenly, on the stroke of half-time, Millom crucially increased their lead when they took advantage of a rare lapse in concentration as a high ball left the Zebras flat-footed and the visitors gleefully slid home to touch down in the corner for their third try and go into the break on a high.
Workington were clearly affected by that very late sucker punch and it showed in the opening ten minutes of the second half as Millom stepped up a level and mercilessly exploited their frailties with two converted tries and a penalty to go 37-13, securing a bonus point in the process.
However, the visitors appeared to sit back, thinking that victory was assured and Workington began gradually to make more dangerous attacks into their opponents’ half.
With Wordsworth and Scott Campbell calling the shots their dominance was rewarded with three tries in twenty minutes as Wordsworth, Matt Scott and Mark Murphy all exploited the overstretched and tiring Millom defence to breeze over the whitewash. For Wordsworth it was a hard-earned and well deserved hat-trick.
The score, with minutes to go, was now 37-30 but only one of Workington’s tries had yielded a conversion. The Zebras would have been one point ahead had all the conversions been successful.
With time running out, the Zebras kept probing and prodding in search of an opening to grab another try and conversion to snatch an improbable draw, but they couldn’t find a way through and Millom recovered to regain possession before they were awarded a penalty on the stroke of full time, which was calmly delivered to secure maximum points.
