Workington Town boss Chris Thorman felt his side achieved the priority against West Bowling by booking their place in the Challenge Cup fourth round with a 28-22 win.

Blustery didn’t begin to describe the conditions, with brutal winds powering through Derwent Park all afternoon and making life difficult for both sides.

And with his side a touch rusty after not playing since their pre-season trip to Barrow, Thorman admitted there were positives and negatives to take from the performance but was largely just happy to see his side reach the next stage of the competition.

Thorman said: “Cup games are about winning and getting into the hat for the next round and that’s what we did.

“It’s always unpredictable playing against amateur sides, and to add to that unpredictability was the weather.

“From my point of view there was some good, some bad and some indifferent.

“I learnt a little bit about some people but I didn’t really learn a great deal that I didn’t already know about the group.

“There’s lots to work on; I’ll probably get a better gauge next week against Doncaster in all fairness.

“We’ve got some things to fix but the main thing is that we are into the next round.”

West Bowling gave as good as they got and would perhaps have fancied their chances of producing a cup shock had they had five more minutes at the end, with momentum swinging back their way.

Thorman paid tribute to the visitors and their vocal away following after an end-to-end early-round cup clash.

“I have to give massive credit to West Bowling,” Thorman said. “They had to deal with a postponement last week and they had to travel up from Bradford today.

“I thought they did their club really proud.”