Whitehaven pretty much secured their Championship status while Workington Town will need a minor miracle to avoid the drop to the third tier next season following

Whitehaven continued their unbeaten competitive run against Workington stretching back to April 2017. 

Two tries in the final ten minutes from Andrew Bulman secured the West Cumbrian derby victory in only the third time the fixture has taken place outside of Cumbria with the encounter being staged at Headingley the home of Leeds Rhinos. 

The opening half hour was a drab affair with both sides not wanting to give too much away to the other but also lacked quality and execution. Town lead by four points at the half hour mark following slotting over two penalty goals.

READ MORE: Whitehaven RL signs Curtis Teare from Workington Town

The first penalty being given away for a late hit on Forber by Perry Singleton in the twenty third minute and then John Hutchings being taken over the horizontal mark on the half hour mark. 

The last ten minutes of the first half belonged to Haven as they scored two back to back tries to take an certainly undeserved eight point advantage at the break. 

The first try came following a fantastic finish from Will Evans as the Welsh international centre seemed destined to be put in touch but he showed skills to get his arm free and ground the ball only milliseconds before pushed in to touch. Williams converted the touchline conversion. 

The second try was skilfully taken with the ball kept alive initially from Tom Wilkinson with a spectacular offload into Marcus Walker who found Luke Broadbent supporting like any good full back should be doing.

Broadbent had a two on one overlap and looked to have to took the wrong choice by taking on his Town counterpart Oscar Thomas but threw an outrageous dummy and despite the best effort of Alex Young the young on loan full back got his first try in Haven colours. 

The start of the second half belonged to Town as they aimed to get back into the game and try continue their survival fight. An Oscar Thomas high bomb was left to one another by Luke Broadbent and Andrew Bulman. The ball bounced and then was knocked on by Bulman. 

Town got their first and what turned out to be their try of the game through Carl Forber in the resulting set. Forber converted his own try to reduce the gap to only two points. 

Forber had a further opportunity just before the hour mark to eradicate the deficit completely and level scores up with another penalty shot at goal but his attempt slid past the far left hand post and went dead. 

The last twenty minutes belonged to Haven and they scored three tries to secure their seventh victory over the near neighbours in eight attempts with a twelve all draw back in August 2019 the only blot on their copybook. 

Tom Walker showed that despite the athleticism in Rugby League players in the modern game that big man still very often defeats little man as he powered past Matty Henson from short range to touch down for what seemed like a decisive four pointer.

It was an even more crucial conversion from Nikau Williams as lined up the attempt at goal. The Kiwi slotted the conversion up to take the advantage beyond a converted try. 

The final ten minutes showed an Andrew Bulman masterclass as he showed acrobatics and pace to secure the victory and almost Haven’s Championship status for another season.

His first try showed his athletic ability with a dive into the right hand side corner to touch the ball down. Williams couldn’t convert from the touchline.

With the clock running down Town knew they needed the ball back and attempted to go short from the kick off. The attempted short kick was too long and landed in the hands of Haven second rower Ryan King.

READ MORE: Legendary Workington rugby player passes away aged 90

King rang laterally and then found Nikau Williams who found Guy Graham down the right hand side.

Graham continued running down that side before finding Bulman who showed his pace to outpace Connor Fitzsimmons and then Oscar Thomas to dive over in the corner to the delight of the Haven fans at that end of the ground.

Nikau Williams rounded off the encounter with a fabulous touchline conversion. 

The victory sees Workington remain rooted to the bottom of the table nine points away from safety as Whitehaven now move away to six points away from the relegation zone with only twelve points remaining on offer in the Championship season.