Workington Town put up a gutsy performance against League Two leaders Dewsbury Rams before going down 25-6 at Derwent Park.
They were particularly strong in the first-half when Dewsbury had to win their medals defending their own line as Town set-up a series of good attacking phases.
The Rams won praise from their coach Liam Finn for the way they defended in that first-half to hold onto their 8-0 advantage.
The points had come from tries in the second and 23rd minutes with Town unable to take advantage of the opportunities close to the Dewsbury line that they had.
It was a former Town player Perry Whiteley who got them on the scoreboard with that early unconverted try.
Then Caelum Jordan scored in the corner to double the Dewsbury lead.
It had been an encouraging first half for Town, despite trailing, but within eight minutes of the restart they conceded another two tries to hand the initiative to the visitors.
Brad Graham collected a kick from Paul Sykes to the corner and was able to finish off with the try.
Then Whiteley collected a chip from Calum Turner to go in for his second and Sykes landed his first goal of the game.
Town needed to score the next try to stay in the contest and they did when last week’s hat-trick hero Sean Sabutey got over again on 52 minutes. Ciaran Walker added the conversion.
It stayed at 6-18 for 16 minutes but crucially it was Dewsbury who got the next try.
Ronan Dixon barged his way over from close range for Sykes to convert and eight minutes from time a field goal from Sykes gave Dewsbury that extra cushion – which they didn’t need in the end.
