Workington Town produced a remarkable fightback which almost brought them a sensational win over Championship high fliers Oldham.
After 21 minutes the Roughyeds had scored four tries and engineered a 22-0 lead, threatening to go close to the 70-odd they scored in the home fixture.
But the game suddenly changed as Town pulled back a converted try before the half-time break.
When they scored again soon after the break it was certainly game on and when they scored twice more inside three minutes before the hour mark the game had been stood on its head.
At 24-22 there was clearly a shock result in prospect but in a big finish by the visitors Town had to defend manfully until they were broken four minutes from time.
Oldham snatched the winning try and added the conversion for a 28-24 victory.
There was disappointment to lose to a late try but the home fans in the 1,007-strong crowd were greatly encouraged by the performance from their favourites.
Coach Jonty Gorley had asked for a reaction, urging to transfer training ground quality onto the field of play and after an indifferent start, they found their mojo and almost pulled off a memorable victory.
Matty Ashurst (4 and 21), Jack Walker (12) and Morgan Smith (16) had scored early tries as Oldham threatened to run away with the game.
But in the end it came down to Ashurst’s try after 75 minutes and Smith’s fourth conversion which gave them the win.
The Town tries came from Zarrin Galea (30), Rio Corkill (45), Braden Leigh (53) and Tyce Walmsley (56) and on-loan half-back Logan Blacker converted all four.
