After their surprise defeat at Carlisle Crusaders last week, Workington's Cumbria League promotion quest suffered another blow as they went down 41 - 26 to Silloth at The Ellis.

Like their hosts, the Tigers came into the game on the back of a defeat the week before (37 - 7 at home to Cockermouth), but began the first half like a team possessed and it only took them 4 minutes to break the deadlock when they caught the Zebras off guard with a scintillating run down the wing before a quality pass was polished off with an unconverted try.

Workington swiftly recovered and after an intense period of well orchestrated scrimmaging rammed home their advantage by taking the lead on 12 minutes when Shaun Murphy bulldozed through to go over the whitewash, leaving Sam Robinson with an easy conversion.

The game settled down after that as the action was confined to the middle, although both sides did produce a couple of threatening surges. However, neither team could deliver the sucker punch - until 8 minutes from time when Silloth delivered a short punt that left Workington flummoxed and the visitors snaffled home their 2nd try, which was converted this time round.

The second half was barely 2 minutes old when Silloth's first serious play down the wing led to a race for the ball, which the visitors won and proceeded to increase their lead with another unconverted try.

Workington were striving to get back into the game, but not for the first time this season, the yellow mist descended upon The Ellis as they found themselves reduced to 14 men after Robert Scott was sinbinned for persistent backchat.

Once again, the visitors delivered maximum use of the extra man advantage when 4 minutes later they sealed a bonus point as they picked gaping holes in the Zebras defence to yield their 4th try of the match and then increased their lead to 20 points with a penalty on the hour.

With Scott having served his punishment, Workington managed to restrain their rampant visitors and on 69 minutes reduced the arrears when more excellent scrimmaging resulted in David Todhunter rolling over to score a hard earned try, which was converted by Robinson.

The momentum was well and truly with the Zebras and 7 minutes from time the tireless Murphy cut the Tigers' defence to confetti when he sliced through to post his 2nd try of the afternoon and when Robinson added his 3rd conversion the deficit was now 6 points and a grandstand finish was on the cards.

But any dreams of Workington pulling off a smash and grab victory were swiftly expunged 2 minutes later when a basic handling error from the Zebras led to a scrum and from an inch perfect pass to the wing saw the visitors finally wrap up victory with a converted try.

This clearly knocked the stuffing out of Workington and a minute from time Silloth piled on further anguish as they produced a magnificent solo run from their own half to leave the Zebras clutching thin air on their way to registering another converted try.

With maximum points well and truly gone, Workington quickly regained focus and they still had the consolation of a bonus point for themselves to aim for and deep into stoppage time this was secured with the last play of the game when Grant Reid shrugged off a couple of slack challenges to breeze in and touch down. Robinson was desperately unlucky to see his conversion smack against the post.

League action takes a back seat for the next fortnight as cup action takes priority with back to back fixtures at The Ellis, first with Kendal in the Cumbria Cup next Saturday and then the following week it's the turn of Whitehaven in the League Cup.

By John Hastings @ The ESG

Workington RFC

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