Warrington 3rd 28 Altrincham Kersal 17

WARRINGTON'S third string fell at home to Altrincham Kersal but the result was distorted by a late breakaway try from the visitors.

Ryan Preston and Tyra Hamblett touched down, Mark Tickle notched one conversion with Luke Wood adding a penalty and a further conversion.

Eleven points separated the two sides at the start of the second half but after 20 minutes Warrington reduced this to four when Hamblett latched onto a pin-point kick to the corner from Dan Reid.

Warrington were on top in the forwards, where Phil Lynch, in his comeback game, Sam Bennett and Jayesh Kerai were prominent.

Unrelenting Warrington pressure was met with desperate Altrincham defence, to the extent that the visitors had two men sin-binned for illegal interference.

Bennett then seemed to have clinched the game but he was held up over the line and Altrincham finally put the game out of Warrington’s reach with a break-away try which was converted.

“This just shows how we keep improving,” said skipper Tony Fretwell.

“Altrincham beat us by 78 points earlier in the season. On Saturday, with a little more luck, we could have won.”