NEW YEAR, OLD STORY AS ZEBRAS CAUGHT COLD ONCE AGAIN

It is turning out to be a wretched season for Workington and they suffered their 5th Cumbria League defeat in succession as they succumbed 13 - 40 at The Ellis to promotion chasing Upper Eden

On a bitterly cold afternoon, both sides cancelled out each other for the opening quarter of an hour as most of the action was confined to midfield with chances proving to be scarce.

However, it was Upper Eden who broke the deadlock on 16 minutes when their first serious spell of pressure in Workington territory paid off as they scrambled over the whitewash for a try that was duly converted.

The Zebras regrouped quickly and within 4 minutes reduced the arrears with a coolly taken penalty from Sam Davidson and this was followed by impressive running and creative passing from the hosts, especially from Jonny Howarth and Kieran Ritchie.

But all this good work came to nil as Upper Eden rode the storm with their peerless defence and then on 30 minutes they caught the Zebras on the hop as a scrum in midfield delivered three clinical passes to finally produce a second converted try.

Three minutes later, Workington were awarded another penalty and this time round it was John McCrickerd who made no mistake in slotting the ball over.

But any dreams of a comeback before half time were mercilessly extinguished by Upper Eden on 38 minutes with a well orchestrated scrum that thrust its' way towards the try line before finishing off proceedings with their 3rd try, which went unconverted.

The visitors wrapped up the bonus point 5 minutes into the second half when following a successful lineout they produced more clinical scrummaging before ultimately going over for their 4th try of the day, which was once more converted.

Workington did their utmost to salvage pride, if not the result, and again made inroads into their opponents' half, especially with the ever dangerous Ritchie on full alert. But they were undone by more stoic defending as well as clumsiness in the final pass and they were further punished on 57 minutes as Upper Eden broke through sloppy marking to score another converted try.

It got no better for the Zebras when Grant Reid was sin binned 15 minutes from time after carelessly getting involved in a scuffle and the visitors made the extra man advantage count 5 minutes later when they nipped into the corner to score their 6th try, swiftly followed by a 5th conversion.

Reid's return on 75 minutes coincided with Upper Eden being reduced to 14 men themselves due to obstruction and after a period of domination, Workington managed to restore a crumb of pride as well as make double figures when the last play of the match was finished off by the tireless Ritchie who scooted home for a consolation try that McCrickerd converted smoothly.

By John Hastings @ The ESG