Workington Town boss Phil Veivers hailed his players as heroes as they pulled off a last-gasp victory over neighbours Whitehaven.

Town won a full-blooded derby 30-28 thanks to a Jason Mossop try with two seconds left on the clock and then Jarrod Sammut coolly slotted over a touchline conversion to clinch the victory.

But Workington had to do it the tough way after Karl Olstrom was sent from the field after just seven minutes.

Veivers said; "I was extremely proud of the way they played today.

"Karl was sent off after just seven minutes today so to play with 12 men against a side that's desperate like us and to get the win right at the death is pretty pleasing."

Sammut may have got the final points that sealed the win but Veivers said the other 15 players deserved just as many plaudits.

He added: "Jarrod created a nice little pass to Jason and got the goal and he gets the plaudits for that but there were another 15 guys that were heroes today.

"This is a huge victory. This was always going to be a crucial part of the year for us.

"We were coming into the back end where we had Dewsbury, Whitehaven and Oldham.

"We always said if we could get the results here we would be on the coat tails of everybody above us and then we go into the eights with a chance.

"We have given ourselves an opportunity to get out of this mire.

"If they keep putting in performances like that and work for each other then we will get more wins than losses in the eights."

Disappointed Haven boss James Coyle said his side failed to make the best use of their extra man advantage.

He said: "It was a fast start from both teams and it was tough, pretty uncompromising for the first 10 minutes or so.

"It was a good west Cumbrian derby and it did start with a lot of intensity but I think at the point where we lost Dave Allen and Olstrom went off it unsettled the game and disrupted the flow of play.

"We should have capitalised on that and we didn't. We failed to push on from them losing a man.

"Every time we built pressure we made an error so we seemed to let them off the hook and that was what they were looking for."