Workington Town have the upper hand at half time in their Ike Southward Memorial Trophy derby with Whitehaven.

Town are 18-0 ahead after a brace of tries from Ryan Fieldhouse, plus a try and three goals from Carl Forber as they had the majority of the chances, against their neighbours.

Workington got off to a dream start as they scored in their first set of six with just 46 seconds on the clock.

A little break from Carl Forber up the right hand side set up the move with Elliott Miller having a hand in before Ryan Fieldhouse sliced through the last line of defence to touch down, Carl Forber converting.

Haven looked to fight right back, forcing a goal-line drop out in a scramble near the Town line. And they got another set of six when Elliott Miller tried to intercept a pass from Dion Aiye but it came loose and the Town defence had to withstand a third surge after giving away a penalty in front of the posts.

Town had to put in some desperate defence to hold up Jason Mossop over the line and then raced back upfield themselves but couldn't get their possession to count with Sean Penkywicz held just short on two occasions.

A neat break from Tyllar Mellor gave Town another boost as he offloaded to Forber. They took play up to the Haven line and Gordon Maudling thought he had scored but referee Gareth Hewer denied the try for a forward pass.

Perry Singleton and Karl Olstrom looked to combine near the line but again the final killer instinct was lacking and Haven were able to collect and get away from the danger.

Haven had to clear their lines again shortly after as a kick through from Forber had them under pressure with Jamie Doran gaining on the defence and winning a drop-out from beneath the posts.

It was half an hour before the next breakthrough came and it was another period of Town sustained pressure that led to them doubling their lead.

On the last tackle Doran put through a kick and Fieldhouse reacted well to chase it down and score the try, with Forber again on target with the two-pointer.

And just three minutes later Forber got a try of his own after Caine Barnes had broken through the Haven line, the half-back tagged on his own conversion and Town had opened up an 18 point lead over their rivals.

As the clock ticked down Haven had a final fling with a kick from Sam Dowsett forcing a drop-out. There was a big hit by Perry Singleton on Callum Phillips and when the ball came loose ref Gareth Hewer gave Haven a penalty for a knock-on.

But again Haven could not get the breakthrough they were desperately searching for as they were halted in their tracks with an obstruction call from Hewer and Town had the ball in their own hands as the half time hooter sounded.