Workington Town 34 - Swinton Lions 10

YOU can use all the old cliches in the world to describe Sunday's game.

Jeckyll and Hyde, a game of two halves, or the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

For the Lions it was definitely a case of the latter.

The good was in the first half when their defence was outstanding and they took what few chances they had to earn a 10-0 half time lead.

The bad came after the break when with the introduction of substitute Tane Manihera turned the game for Workington.

And the ugly came in the last ten mintues when the Lions wilted and let in three tries.

Paul Smith and Rob Barraclough were outstanding in the forwards with Wayne Jackman, Rob Gallagher and Mick Nanyn standing out in the back division.

Workington started very brightly, Jackman made a copybook tackle on Stuart Hoyles to prevent a certain score, Kevin Hetherington lost the ball over the line and twice the Lions incercepted to save certain Workington scores.

Finally after 24 minutes a crossfield run by Gallagher saw him send Mike Woods in for the game's first try.

There were handling mistakes aplenty but Swinton held on to their narrow lead and right on half time a good break by Paul Smith, well supported by Gallagher, saw the half back touch down next to the posts to leave Nanyn an easy conversion.

What was said in the Workington dressing room at half time galvanised the home side.

Within two minutes of the restart Manihera sent Lynton Stott in for Town's first points of the game but still the Lions managed to hang on.

It wasn't until just before the hour that Workington got in front for the first time.

Forwards Anthony Samuel, Matt Sturn and former Salford man Lokeni Savelio were doing all the damage for Workingon.

But it fell to hooker Carl Sice to go from acting half back for a score that seemed to send the Lions heads dropping.

Awesome prop Hitro Okesene scored after 64 minutes before the Lions lost Wayne Jackman, injured in a sickening collision with Workington's loose forward Gary Charlton.

After that Swinton went to pieces, Town added three more tries as the game came to a close.

Owen Williamson, Neil Fraser and Sice, with his second, made it another miserable journey home for Mike Gregory's team.

Hetherington added five conversion goals to bring up the final score.

SWINTON LIONS: Jackman, Meade, NAnyn, Bateman, Woods, Gallagher, Veivers, M. Loughlin, Barraclough, Hanson, Cushion, Chambers, Smith. Subs: Butler, Doherty, Evans, Lewis.

ATTENDANCE: 737

REFEREE: Paul Lee (Tyldesley)