Workington Town were made to pay for a poor start at Hunslet as they went down 22-18 in their League One clash.
They conceded two tries inside the first six minutes and that proved crucial in the end as the Cumbrians were the dominant side in the second-half.
The first blow came on two minutes after Ethan Bickerdike had dropped a high ball. Although he tried to recover he was unable to prevent Sean Croston from going in for the try which was converted by Matty Beharrell.
When they gave away the ball again it was Steve Crossley who was able to capitalise by striding over under the posts for Beharrell to add a second conversion.
Workington hit back, though, and on nine minutes had cut the deficit when Ciaran Walker weaved his way through the Hunslet defence to score a fine try which he converted.
It was Town had suddenly woken up from a bad dream and were determined to put all thoughts of it to the back of their mind.
On 14 minutes more good play by the visitors brought a try in the corner for top scorer Sean Sabutey and although Walker couldn’t convert he did bring the sides level with a penalty five minutes later.
Things started to calm down after four tries – two each in those frantic opening 14 minutes – and it was pretty much even until the 37th minute when Hunslet grabbed their third try. Again it was Crossley who finished-off after great work by Beharrell who added another conversion.
On the hour Beharrell took the opportunity to edge his side further ahead when he put over a penalty.
Town also had to survive a 10-minute spell without further mishap after Joe Kirkup was sent to the sin bin.
It was Workington who scored next with Sabutey again finding the room to get in at the corner and Walker converted on 72 minutes.
Hunslet were getting edgy and when presented with another kickable penalty Beharrell had no qualms about banging his kick between the uprights with just four minutes left.
Town put in a big finish and when looking likely to go in at the corner the ball was dropped. More pressure failed to get through as Hunslet hung on to claim the points.
