Warrington 24 Vale of Lune 72

EVEN though they eventually fell to runaway North One West leaders Vale of Lune, Warrington coach Andy Roberts was pleased with the majority of his side’s performance.

The hosts led up to the 50th minute at Walton Lea Road through tries from Steve Pilkington and Nathan Beesley, plus a conversion and four penalties from Ben Hockenhull.

However, the visitors stretched away in the game’s final quarter to make it an ultimately heavy defeat for Warrington.

“I liked the intensity we brought to the first 50 minutes,” Roberts said.

“Although we could not maintain it, this was a big improvement on our visit to Vale earlier in the season.”

After Hockenhull was brought down just short of the try line early on, he found Pilkington in close support to score between the posts and put Warrington ahead.

Vale quickly moved into the lead with two converted scores, but two Hockenhull penalties moved the hosts back to within a point of the lead.

A third seven-point score put the visitors further clear before Tom Wood put Kieron Hughes racing through a gap and he found Beesley outside him to finish off.

Hockenhull’s conversion attempt hit the post, but he stroked over a brace of penalties shortly afterwards to put Warrington back into the lead.

However, Vale found an extra gear and the hosts could not keep their scoring in check.

Warrington have two games of the season remaining, starting with a trip to Rochdale on Saturday, kick off 3pm.