Jamie Dallimore grabs a late victory for North Wales Crusaders at Workington Town

WORKINGTON TOWN 14 NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 16
CALLUM LINFORD, Fibrus Community Stadium, Sunday

WORKINGTON welcomed league action back to the Fibrus Community Stadium for the first time since August 2024.

Back then, Carl Forber brought the curtain down on 16 glorious seasons as Town’s mercurial halfback.

Now part of the coaching set up alongside Jonty Gorley and Dean Marwood, he would surely be looking to get Town off to a winning home start.

But in a tightly contested game, it wasn’t to be.

North Wales had won their last three games against Town, including a last-play winner in Colwyn Bay in 2024 thanks to Chris Barratt.

Gorley had spoken earlier in the week of the Crusaders being one of League One’s big hitters and that was only made more apparent when they announced the likes of Ant Walker, Jordan Case and Jamie Dallimore as part of their squad to face Town.

And things looked ominous from the off, when Town started the game with an early knock-on in the first tackle.

The Crusaders didn’t need a second invitation and they opened the scoring with a move down the right that saw centre Cole Oakley touch down, although it was too far out for Dallimore to add the conversion.

Soon afterwards, however, a wicked kick from Carter saw Lloyd Roby knock on to give Town their first chance at the Crusaders’ line. But it came to nothing as Dom Weir was penalised for an obstruction.

Town were determined not to be bullied by their visitors and that was exemplified when Jake Bradley made a big tackle on Walker that made the Welsh international spill the ball.

Walker recovered, however, and Town had to work hard to keep him out before Jake Bradley was then inches away from a try at the other end as he lost the ball a metre short of the try line.

It was then Callum Philips’ turn to be held a metre short as Town looked to squeeze North Wales, although a Crusaders’ penalty relieved the pressure.

But it eventually told when the penalty count swung back to the home side and Carter dummied and forced his way over the line, converting his own try.

And almost immediately Town went back-to-back through Jack Stephenson as Steve Scholey laid off a beautiful line ball as the Crusaders conceded a penalty for flopping. Carter’s conversion extended the lead to 12-4.

And Carter added another two points just before half-time for a high shot to give Town what looked like a comfortable 14-4 lead.

But after the first half had started with a Town error, so did the second, as they kicked off out on the full to concede a penalty.

It allowed the visitors to attack the Town line, but without any immediate success.

But their pressure would eventually yield points for the Crusaders and it was Oakley again who went in for his second try, going in down the left edge with Dallimore this time adding the conversion to reduce the deficit to four points with a quarter of the game remaining.

When Phillips broke downfield with Carter it looked like Town would score a third try but a forward pass by Cole Walker-Taylor saw Workington frustrated.

And that was even more apparent on 72 minutes when the Crusaders again managed to turn pressure into points for Dallimore to score to the left of the posts, with his own conversion securing a two-point lead that they did not relinquish.

GAMESTAR: Jake Carter guided Town to the best of his ability but ultimately in a losing cause.

GAMEBREAKER: Jamie Dallimore’s late try secured the two points.

MATCHFACTS
TOWN
15 Cole Walker-Taylor
20 Dave Eccleston
4 Will Evans
1 Zarrin Galea
2 Levi Atiga
28 Jake Carter
7 Dom Weir
8 Ross Ainley
21 Callum Phillips
16 Guy Graham
11 Cooper Howlett
12 Jake Bradley
13 Jack Stephenson
Subs (all used)
9 Jamie Doran
10 Stevie Scholey
24 Lucas Castle
25 Callum Farrer

Tries: Carter (33), Stephenson (35)
Goals: Carter 3/3

CRUSADERS
1 Lloyd Roby
5 Pat Ah Van
3 Kieran Taylor
12 Cole Oakley
21 Ollie Brookes
22 Jamie Dallimore
7 Jordy Gibson
19 Josh Eaves
8 Jack Houghton
10 Chris Barratt
11 Sam Wilde
18 Liam Cooper
13 Olly Davies
Subs (all used)
14 Joe Baldwin
15 Shaun Costello
23 Paddy Jones
32 Ant Walker