North Wales Crusaders suffered a disappointing 36-22 defeat against Workington Town in their latest League One encounter.

Anthony Murray’s side trailed by four points at the half-time interval at Queensway Stadium and manoeuvred themselves into the lead on the 50-minute mark, but a late flurry of points from the visitors proved decisive.

The result leaves Crusaders 10th in League One, while Workington remain in third spot, trailing runaway leaders Bradford Bulls and York City Knights by eight points.

Cru took the lead with an Earl Hurst try after just five minutes, crashing over the line for the game’s first score and Tommy Johnson applied the extras.

Workington replied six minutes later with a try of their own as Sam Forrester collected the ball out wide and crossed the whitewash to level matters.

There was a worrying moment for goal-kicker Johnson on 13 minutes as he had to leave the field for a head test following a nasty collision in a tackle but the experienced Johnson was deemed fit to continue.

Karl Ashall – who re-joined the club a fortnight ago from Barrow – set up Alex Trumper to score to extend Cru’s lead to 12-6 as Brad Walker converted, before Workington had a try chalked off for a forward pass.

Oliver Wilkes levelled matters after 23 minutes, bursting through to score, before the visitors went ahead as Ben Morris touched down.

Johnson’s penalty reduced the deficit to four points at half-time before his second penalty of the day reduced the arrears further.

The Wrexham-based outfit took the lead on 50 minutes as Dale Bloomfield dived over in the corner under real pressure from the Workington defence. Johnson added the extras to give Cru a four point lead.

However, the visitors replied instantly through Sean Penkywicz and the winger crashed over for another score moments later as Workington took an eight-point lead.

Tom Curwen finished the job off with a 65th minute try and despite a valiant late rally, Cru couldn’t edge back into the game.