Workington Town head coach Chris Thorman hailed his side’s defensive resolve after they swept aside Keighley Cougars 24-6 in their League 1 opener.

For 79 minutes Town looked untroubled and unlikely to concede and, although their defence was ultimately breached late on, Thorman was happy with the way they had gone about their business in a “professional” win.

He compared the performance to the Challenge Cup win against Doncaster, another game which saw them earn a comfortable win but also spurn chances to do so even more convincingly.

“We scored some nice tries in the end, especially in the second half,” he said. “We created a lot and made a lot of clean breaks and we weren’t quite clinical enough to finish them off.

“Everybody was doing their job, turning up for each other, understanding their role and for large parts we didn’t look like we were going to be broken.”

He gave four-try man Elliot Hall credit for finishing moves down the flank but felt it important to pay tribute to his team’s defensive effort for providing the platform for him to maraud down the wing.

Thorman said: “He’s going to be some player, if he realises his full potential, as is Alex Young on the left wing and Gabe Fell at full-back. I wouldn’t swap them for many in this division.

“What the fans see is Elliot’s intercepting and running 70 metres.

“What I thought today was our defence earned Elliot the right to score those points and particularly the boys that I’ve mentioned; it’s hard to single out people because it was a genuine team effort.”