Proud Workington Town coach Dave Clark praised his defence for keeping out visitors South Wales Ironmen yesterday.

Town won the League One clash 56-0 with some good tries on display, including a hat-trick from Joe Hambley.

But it was the defensive effort that drew the most pride from Clark who said his side had worked hard to tighten up.

“Especially to nil them, I’m quite proud of that,” said Clark.

“The boys had some questions thrown at them in back-to-back sets and they solved a lot of problems there. We have worked quite hard on our defence in the last two weeks.

"Last week, they scored three tries which were defendable, so we looked at that on video and made sure we tightened up our defence.

“We made it harder for them to score and, credit to our players, they stood up today.”

Town scored three tries in the first half but it could have been more but for missed chances and a high penalty count. But in the second half, they came out a changed side and racked up the points, led by a superb performance from Jamie Doran.

Clark added: “We gave away eight penalties in the first half but we addressed that at half time and, in the second half, it was only about two which was the difference for us.

“We went on to score seven tries on the back of it. Giving away penalties, you have to work harder defensively and it takes juice out of our tanks but we learned from that and we were better for it.”

The victory moved Town further up the league table and next weekend they head to Hunslet for another tough encounter.

"We’re on the edge now, so we want to give ourselves a good chance of getting in that top eight," Clark added.

“Games like last week and this can go either way if we don’t concentrate but we have that focus now within the team and we are starting well.

“Stuart Howarth is managing the game well for us and we have two nines who work well off each other and a pack who worked hard too.

“Next week will be a big test, Hunslet away and a lot different to what we have played these last two weeks and we have to be better prepared for that.”