» January 4th 2001
» Workington Town 31 Whitehaven 10

Derby matches are always fiercely fought affairs and expectations were high for this match. Form means nothing in these matches and passion and pride take over. Town played with both pride and passion. The grateful Town following cheered their heroes from the start of the match to the finish.

Town made a few positional changes to the squad with Tane Manihera reverting to stand-off and Mickey Horner to scrum-half with Neil Frazer and Steve McGrady replacing flu victims Leigh Smith and Kevin Hetherington. Matt Strum moved to the second row were he was joined by Anthony Samuel, Lokeni Savelio moved to prop and Stuart Hoyles came in at Loose forward replacing another flu victim Jamie Beaumont.

The changes started to pay off from the very start with the forwards making great runs in attack, especially Okesene, Savelio and Sturm as well as some brilliant tackling to prevent Haven from gaining any field position. Manihera and Sice were in among it as well.

Town enjoyed the early possession and survived an early scare when Haven fed the ball out wide giving Chris Campbell a chance to go in at the corner, but winger Neil Frazer reached him and completed a try saving tackle.

Town opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Carl Sice broke the Haven line and passed to Tane Manihera who released Hitro Okesene. Okesene had the line at his mercy and powered over under the posts to score his first try for the club. Manihera had taken over the kicking duties from the missing flu victim Kevin Hetherington and converted to extend the Town lead to 6 - 0.

Town should have scored again very shortly after when Sice broke through and ignored the high tackle and was running for the line when referee Colin Morris blew up for a penalty when the advantage should have been played. Manihera added the penalty and extended the Town lead to 8 - 0.

Haven were next onto the score sheet with a Kirkbride penalty after Samuels was penalised for holding down. Kirkbride also missing another penalty after Tunstall was deemed to have thrown a punch in the tackle.

After 25 minutes Town increased their lead after a high tackle by Aaron Lester on Matt Sturm resulted in a penalty. From the possession Samuel broke through three tackles and crashed over for a try under the posts. Manihera again converted to extend the lead to 14 - 2.

Town were rampant and they extended their lead further 5 minutes later. Mickey Horner fired-up a huge bomb on the last tackle and Haven fullback Wesley Wilson spilled the ball. Steve McGrady came racing through and pounced onto the loose ball inside the in-goal area to score. Manihera added the conversion, to move the score to 20 - 2.

Haven reduced the arrears before halftime after Matt Sturm was sin binned for not being square at the play of the ball and hindering the Haven attack. Kirkbride kicked the resulting penalty to make the halftime score 20 - 4.

The second half saw Town still with 12 men again controlling the possession. Okesene burst through the would be tacklers and was felled by a horrendous high tackle from Lester. The referee had to act, and having earlier spoken to the Haven player on several occasions throughout the match, he had no alternative but to show Lester the red card. Manihera kicked the resulting penalty to extend the score to 22 - 4.

Manihera then added another penalty and Jamie Smith added to the scoring with a field goal to make the score 25 - 4.

Town scored again in the 77th minute after Manihera ran at the Haven line and fed a brilliant pass to Jamie Smith who raced 30 metres to score under the posts. Manihera adding the conversion to make his personal score 14 points and match score 31 - 4.

Haven scored consolation points in the dying seconds after spinning the ball wide for Wignall to score and Kirkbride converting to make the final score 31 - 10.

The 17 players on duty for Town dished out a harsh lesson to Haven. It was difficult to pick out a Man of the match, as they were all contenders. Tane Manihera, operating in his more familiar role of stand-off picked up the sponsor's man of the match award with an eye-catching all round performance, but have been run close by the awesome Hitro Okesene and the probing Carl Sice.