Workington are still seeking their first victory of the season in North Lancs Cumbria but are getting closer.

Beaten at home by De La Salle a week earlier, with eight points between them, the Zebras were only six points adrift in their follow-up at the Ellis Sports Ground. It meant they picked-up their first bonus point of the season.

They still have a long way to go to move up the table as they had been docked five points for an administrative error from last season.

In the end it was handling errors by the home side which contributed much to give the visitors from Lancashire the victory at the Ellis Sports Ground.

Playing with a stiff breeze at their back Littleborough dominated the opening exchanges, but the Zebras defence was able to hold them out.

However, a misjudgement and a little bit of dissent was enough to allow the referee to award a penalty to the visitors in the 10th minute which full back Nathan Coop converted from 22 metres out.

The Zebras were now getting a foothold into the game and when they were awarded a penalty in the same position as the visitors centre Tom Lawson quickly saw the option of running it. As a result Matt Gorley got the first try of the game to put the Zebras in front.

Back came the visitors and from a line-out 15 metres out they used a well-rehearsed move and from the resulting maul number eight forward Chris Collins scored in the corner. A fine conversion by Chris Park from the touchline followed and when Coop slotted over another penalty they led 13-5 after 30 minutes.

The Zebras had lost stand-off Jonny Howarth to injury earlier in the game, but it was his stand-in John Chisnall who had a major hand in the next two scores.

His first was a penalty from 25 metres and then with Littleborough pressing, he intercepted a kick through, beat his man and put winger Bede O’Connor away on a 75 metre run to touch down near the posts. That’s where it stayed until half time.

Although the wind abated a little after half time the Zebras’ tendency to drop balls was coming back to haunt them.

Time and again the ball was spilled when either they could have increased pressure, or on the one occasion Ross Cape broke clear his pass was dropped by the supporting player with the line at his mercy.

The visitors then took over the lead again when forward David Kearns was driven over the line fo a try.

Again the Zebras took the game back towards the visiting line only to lose possession and when this happened in the last two minutes they had to concede a penalty on the retreat which Park duly converted to make the score 15-21.

Coach Dan Bowman and his assistant Andrew Branthwaite have work to do to cut out the mistakes as the Zebras strive for their first win of the season.