Workington Town and Newcastle Thunder are deadlocked at half time in a thrilling encounter at Derwent Park.

The opening moments were all Newcastle and Town fans were looking nervous as the visitors took an 18-0 lead but in the final 15 minutes of the half Workington struck back.

They crashed over for three tries, all converted by Forber to put the two sides level once more at the break.

The game did not set off in the best manner for the home side as it was Newcastle who put the first points on the board as Aaron Ollett crashed over the whitewash, with Jy-Mel Coleman converting.

Workington looked to strike back at their visitors but Stevie Scholey was held up over the line and then nobody could get on the end of a neat little kick from Jamie Doran on the last.

But Newcastle were again immediately back on the hunt and in the end it proved too easy as Keal Carlile popped up a ball for former Town star Liam McAvoy to run onto and a gap opened up in front of him to score.

Coleman had an easy two-pointer and Workington found themselves 12 points down with just 13 minutes of the clash gone.

It only got worse as Newcastle full-back Lewis Young danced his way through the defence to score and Coleman converted from wide out to stretch their advantage to 18-0.

Town made a couple of substitutions with Sam Hopkins and Fuifui Moimoi joining the fray and it seemed to spur the home side on.

Close to the line Sean Penkywicz popped the pass out to the onrushing Hopkins and he burst over the line taking several defenders with him, Carl Forber stepping up to convert.

The biggest cheers came on the half hour mark when it looked as though Town were struggling in the middle of the field. But Doran had other ideas and he put in a lovely little chip and chase.

He managed to kick the ball on and it popped up nicely for Scott Rooke to collect and race over, with Forber on target once more to bring the home side to within six points.

And just two minutes before the break Doran kicked early and gave Town perfect field position with a 40/20.

Town pressed the Newcastle line but to no avail and then, on the last, Doran again put up a great kick to the corner and Elliott Miller won the leaping contest to bring it back down and touch down.

Forber's conversion from wide out was enough to see the two sides back on level terms at half time with all to play for in the second half.