Workington Town’s season ended in disappointment, beaten 26-10 at home by North Wales Crusaders in the elimination final.
Crusaders will now travel to Oldham next week to stay in the competition against the Roughyeds who crashed 36-0 at Doncaster.
Town had come back from an early deficit to lead 10-8 at half-time but couldn’t add to their tally in the second-half as Crusaders finished the stronger.
Former Whitehaven and Barrow forward Carl Forster, who was outstanding for 66 minutes before he took a deserved break, had scored the Crusaders’ first half try.
Leon Hayes, another key figure in the Crusaders’ side, landed the conversion after an early penalty.
But Town finished the half better and after Carl Forber had slipped through for a well-taken individual try, it was Ethan Bickerdike who got on the end of a Forber kick to score the second.
Ciaran Walker converted the first try but saw his second attempt come back off the post.
The start of the second-half was a real arm wrestle until the Crusaders scored the crucial next try with Kieran Taylor slicing through near the line. Hayes added the conversion.
Seven minutes later they were in again when Pat Rainford got over and again the accurate boot of Hayes added the extras.
The third try of the half came 11 minutes from the end when Matt Davies strode through to touchdown and again Hayes put over the conversion.
It was a disappointing end to what has been a promising revival season for the West Cumbrians.
“I thought we had done well in the first half but we went away from what we had been doing well. There were too many errors and we weren’t finishing our sets, but credit to North Wales I thought, to a man, they played really well.
“It’s been a good season, however, to finish fifth with largely a group of players we brought in from the community game.
“We will be trying to add to that, picking up the best local players and adding some quality from other areas if we can.
“We are in talks with a number of players at the moment and clearly will know more over the next few weeks,” said Town coach Anthony Murray.
