Workington Town 44, Gateshead Thunder 0

WORKINGTON Town soared into second place in the Co-operative Championship One with a comfortable home victory.

These are heady days after the disappointment of 2009, but coach Gary Charlton reckons he still hasn’t seen the best of his players.

“How many times have Martin (Oglanby) and I been saying that we want 80 minutes out of the team. It’s happened in every match and today was no exception.

“I thought we played well in the first-half, with a good tempo and built some pressure which produced five first-half tries.

“I thought we should have gone on from there but we didn’t and Gateshead came back. Maybe we thought the game was won and eased off, but we don’t want them to do that. They must maintain the intensity.

“On the credit side it was good to get through the 80 minutes without conceding a single point. Getting a nil in the points against column was very important as we have been spending a lot of time on defence,” said Charlton.

Workington were 26-0 ahead at half-time with five tyr8ies, three of them converted by Scott Kaighan –m and in many ways the game was won.

But Gateshead had arrived late – coming into town from the wrong side they were forced to turn back and go round by Cockermouth – which meant we kicked-off some 14 minutes late, and really Thunder were hardly seen as an attacking force in the first period.

It took seven minutes for Town to take the lead and it was a simple walk-in for Aaran Low in the end as the home side moved the ball in front of the Gateshead posts and the centre saw the opportunity to stroll through a huge gap.

He second score came on 13 minutes and followed a low kick to complete a set from scrum-half Liam Finch. It was straight at full-back Kevin Neighbour but he fumbled and the loose ball was swiftly given to Ryan Campbell who crashed over under the posts.

On 28 minutes, after a period of sterner Gateshead resistance, Jamie Marshall burrowed over from a quick play the ball on the Thunder line.

The two unconverted tries came in the last three minutes of the half and were the pick of the bunch.

Good work by Joe McKenna, throwing a dummy before finding space, ended with Low charging over in the corner.

The in the closing seconds the ball was spread from Marshall’s tap on the right, across the line before full-back Brett Carter came on a surging run to arc round the cover and go in at the corner.

It took only four minutes of the second-half for Town to score again when Mike Backhouse appeared to have taken the wrong option out on the left. He ignored a short dash to the corner to go back inside, run across the cover before straightening up and finding enough space to get in for the try which Kaighan converted.

Workington had defended strongly, and in numbers, all afternoon and they had heir most intense period of pressure to deal with for a ten minute spell in the middle of the half.

Centre Tom Wilson was only inches way from squeezing over in the corner and he also got his fingers to, but couldn’t hold, a lofted chip by Ryan Clarke over the home line.

Tough tackling and a determination to keep a clean sheet meant that Town held-off the Gateshead surge and added to their own tally in the final quarter.

Kris Coward, on for his second stint of the game, showed power, strength and tenacity to plough through three tackles on a ten yard rush to the line which ended with him diving over for the score.

The final score of the game was another product of forward power and determination. This time it was Jarrad Stack who shrugged off the attentions of three tacklers to fling himself over the line after a typical effort from the Aussie.

STAR MAN: AARAN LOW – Two tries among some solid work in the centre as he continues to settle well and confidently in the professional ranks.

Town: Carter, Backhouse, Beattie, Low, Marshall, L. Finch, Kaighan, Dutton, Pedley, Coward,. Whitehead, Stack, Campbell. Subs (all used) Wilson, McKenna, McGoff, Butler.

Referee: Clint Sharrad, Manchester

Crowd: 413

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