Warrington Woolston Rovers 20

Sheffield Hillsborough Hawks 16

A WARRINGTON side including previously retired Woolston stars Liam Horrigan and Karl Taylor defeated Sheffield Hillsborough Hawks in a see-saw National League thriller at Wilderspool on Saturday.

The lead changed hands four times before Rovers were confirmed to have moved into the top half of the National League Three ladder.

Warrington Woolston's win was only confirmed in the final quarter.

From a scrum close to the Sheffield line, a good ball from Andy James put centre Iain Fowler racing through at speed to score between the posts. Chris Mellor added the simple conversion for an 18-16 lead with 20 minutes to go.

Any hopes Sheffield had of regaining the lead were dented four minutes later when their hooker Simon Lomas was dismissed for a high tackle.

Man of the match centre Mellor's sixth goal from six attempts in the late stages, adding to his earlier try for a personal points haul of 16, was the final score of the game.

Rovers had had to fight back from 10-2 down in the first half following two tries for the Hawks by former Sheffield Eagles flying winger Bright Sodje.

But Mellor's try, off another pin-point James pass, and another Mellor penalty had levelled matters by half-time.

A minute into the second half Mellor's 40 metres penalty goal put Rovers ahead but the Hawks regained the lead when a chip through brought a try for Jason Davidson to give Sheffield the lead until Rovers concluded matters.

Rovers: Mark Wallington; Andy Wroe, Iain Fowler, Chris Mellor, Mick Quinn; Andy James, Craig Harris; Mark Shephard, Liam Horrigan, Matt Patterson, Lee Rushton, Jon Cole, Mike Bishop. Substitutes: Steve Williams, Dave Powlesland, Karl Taylor, Dave Kelly.

On Saturday, Warrington Woolston are away to Huddersfield Underbank Rangers in National League Three. The coach leaves Bennett's Rec, Padgate, at 11.45am for any supporters wishing to travel.