CREIGHTON 23, Hawcoat Park 50.

A full bus of supporters left Barrow on the "lads and dads" day out and had a most enjoyable trip to Creighton. A victory of course helps but what looks a comfortable win in no way reflects the wholehearted commitment you always come to expect from the Carlisle based side who were always in with a chance of winning for the majority of the match.

The game could not of started any better for Hawcoat elusive running Alex Brown ran the ball back well from a deep kick into our half, centre Luke Harrison and the pack carried on the move before Will Coles throughout a good long pass for full back Lewis Sayle to come into the line and touch down. Coles added the conversion 0-7.

Both teams were attempting to run the ball at every opportunity and when we tried to get the ball out wide, and it went to ground on the halfway the Creighton winger scooped up the loose ball and ran under the posts for a converted try. 7 -7

Normal centre Chris Burns was doing a great job in the line out filling in for injuries to Hawcoat’s normal jumping options and from a sustained spell of forward pressure led by the strong running back row of Mike Quirk, Jack Sutherland and Alfie White it was prop John Donnan who forced his way over from close to the line. The conversion was missed.

Soon after Creighton booted over a penalty from in front of the posts and then took the lead for the only time in the game. From a clear knock on Hawcoat stopped playing and the ball was booted on into acres of space for the Creighton winger to run onto get a favourable bounce to touch down.

The ref apologised sensing something was amiss but of course only has one pair of eyes and it was up to Hawcoat to always play to the whistle. 15 - 12.

Hawcoat finished the half strongly centre Dan Lightfoot was running hard and making good ground and Will Coles was always elusive when running the ball and late in the half Coles and Chris Burns touched down for tries one of which Coles converted Half time 15 - 24

Early in the second half Creighton reduced the deficit with a 30-metre penalty goal. 10 minutes into the half Lewis Sayle bagged his second try showing a neat dummy to ghost in from 10 metres out. Coles added the conversion 18 - 31.

Mid way through the half Creighton came right back with a good try their impressive centre chipped over the defensive line for their full back to run on at pace and touch down wide out. 23 - 31.

Just as the away side supporters were starting to get nervous the away day was going to get spoilt the experience of hard working second row Chris Thompson and front rows skipper Andy Kent and hooker Brad Morrow calmed things down and regained a platform up front.

New signing scrum half Jonathan Mahon had a fine game and was providing fluency to Hawcoat’s play with crisp distribution to get our play on the front foot.

Hawcoat finished with a real wind in our sails to get the score board turning round with three further tries through Jack Shannon, Chris Burns second and man of the match Mike Quirk who ran hard all day and deserved his try. Final score 23 - 50.

A frustrating game at times but in the end a good close game played in good spirit throughout.

A tough rearranged home game against an ever-improving Workington Zebras side awaits next week.