Workington Town romped to a clear-cut win at London Skolars in their opening League Two game of the season.
Coach Anthony Murray included six debutants in his squad of 17 who eased to a 58-16 victory.
Much tougher assignments lie ahead but this was a highly encouraging start for the new coach and his squad.
Murray has been really pleased with the way his new-look squad had been coming together in the pre-season ahead of the first game in the capital.
That was reflected in their performance, particularly in how they started the game, going ahead after only three minutes.
Tom Curwen, back for his second spell at the club, opened the scoring when he barged over and Cieran Walker added the conversion.
Six minutes later Town continued their confident start and Max Anderson-Moore marked his debut with a try, converted by Walker.
Jordan Burns, the former Whitehaven player who is having a second go at the pro game, celebrated his Town debut with a try on 13 minutes and with another conversion from Walker it looked like a long afternoon for the Skolars.
But they did give themselves some hope with a converted try on 17 minutes which might have unsettled the Cumbrians, buty they were soon chalking up the points again.
Three more tries followed before the break, two of them converted by Walker. Joe Kirkup, Malik Steele and Anderson-Moore all crossed the home line and at the break Town enjoyed a thoroughly deserved 34-6 lead.
Clearly words were said to the Skolars during the break and they came out fired-up, scoring an unconverted try inside two minutes.
But Town responded immediately with Kirkup charging over for his second try on 44 minutes.
Skolars’ early dash was suitable squashed three minutes later when Blain Marwood darted over and when Ethan Bickerdike also cross on 52 minutes Town were scoring at a point-per-minute.
They only managed one more try, from Caine Barnes on 65 minutes, converted by Walker and the final points of the game were from a converted try for Skolars four minutes from the end.
