Chris Thorman insists that Workington showed they are a "decent team" despite a second successive defeat denying them the chance of a plum Coral Challenge Cup sixth round tie yesterday.

Town, as they had in the league at Newcastle the week before, got away to an awful start, quickly going 10 points down to Sheffield, and were playing catch-up thereafter.

They outscored and, at times, outplayed the Eagles with a stirring second half display which left coach Thorman encouraged but hugely frustrated.

“It was similar to last week where the start was unacceptable," he said.

“You can’t do that against good teams because you get bitten on the backside and that’s what happened.

“We didn’t control the ruck well enough, which allowed them to play on the front foot too much.

“Once we fixed that up and there was more balance in possession, we showed we are a decent team and can score points.

"Combine the ruck with the loss of Hanley Dawson and Marcus O’Brien [to injuries], who are consistently among our best defenders, and it made it difficult.

"But I have to again refer back to the start of the game when we must focus and make sure we do our job and, if we do, we’ll find ourselves in an arm wrestle rather than 10 points down."

A succession of mistakes and penalties in the opening minutes gifted the Eagles the perfect start, and three further tries before the break left Town 26-6 adrift and it was an uphill battle in the second half.

“I got a bit angry at half time. We probably gave them too much respect.

“And there was one stage in the second half, with the score 26-12, when Alex Young contested a kick and had he managed to ground it we would have been right back in the game.”