Workington produced a remarkable finish to beat Ambleside 36-32 in a delayed Counties 1 Cumbria clash at the Ellis Sports Ground.
Both teams were seeking their first win of the season after this fixture had been held over a fortnight.
Indeed it looked as though Ambleside, playing with 14 for much of the game, would collect the spoils.
As the game neared its end, the Zebras were met with a resilient Ambleside defence, and it didn’t look as if they were going to break it down.
But in the 79th minute Scott Davidson went over in the corner to reduce the deficit to just three points.
At 29-32 it was thought to be a final consolation try for the home side.
The referee confirmed that there were 30 seconds left on his watch so there was time for the restart.
From the kick-off, the Zebras proceeded to look after the ball and strung a number of good phases together to put themselves in an attacking position.
Deep into added time, John McCrickerd managed to break away and score a try with the last play of the game to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The conversion was successful and Workington were rewarded but Ambleside, after a brave effort, were deflated.
The Lakes side had travelled light on players, having only the bare 15 available because of an injury crisis at the club.
From the start Workington had a spell of early control of the ball, but not for long and after only two minutes
an Ambleside interception resulted in the first points of the game, in the form of a converted try for the visitors.
That score seemed to gee up the Zebras players and they got the first points on the board themselves with a try from Josh Reid in the 5th minute, following some steady pressure on the Ambleside line. Brandon Walker was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt.
In the passage of play leading to the try, Ambleside lost a player to injury, meaning they dropped down to 14 players and had to soldier on for the rest of the game with one short.
In the 13th minute, Jake Heskett was shown a yellow card for two penalties in quick succession, putting the Zebras down to 14 players themselves.
Following a fairly even spell of play, Ambleside increased their lead in the 25th minute with an unconverted try.
This again seemed to wake up the Zebras and again they responded quickly with another score of their own in the 28th minute, through Jimmy Wagstaffe. Walker was this time successful with the conversion to tie the score at 12-12.
On 35 minutes, Ambleside were again over the Zebras try line following another interception but there was no conversion.
But in keeping with the flow of the game the Zebras responded quickly again.
Two minutes later Robert Hodgson got over the line to score the games sixth, and the Zebras third try of the game. With Walker off the pitch at the time, Cade Bales stepped up to slot over the conversion and at half-time the hosts led 19-17.
The second half started with the Zebras playing into what wind there was and in the 44th minute James Beck finished off some excellent play to secure a bonus point fourth try which was unconverted.
At this point the Zebras should have gone on and put the game out of sight, but it was the resilient Ambleside team, who fought their way back into the game and scored two tries of their own in the 48th & 50th minutes, one of which was converted for a 29-24 lead.
In the build up to the second of those tries Beck committed a cynical high tackle, which saw him take ten minutes in the sin bin.
The game then became scrappy and Ambleside further extended their lead with a penalty, which made it 32-24 – and sparked the frantic, successful finish by the home side.
Whilst the five league points went the way of the Zebras, having the spirit to hang in there right to the end, it was ultimately cruel on an Ambleside team that were committed to the cause.
The two points they took away will be scant consolation having been eight points in front with only two minutes left to play.
The Ambleside tries were scored by Tom Smith, Sean Tebbet, Greg Tebbet, Matty Kaye and Owen Bulger. Cameron Penn converted two and kicked a penalty.
Next on the agenda for the Zebras is a trip to Carlisle to face Creighton next Saturday while Ambleside host Keswick 2nds.
