Oldham have taken the spoils in a close encounter with hosts Workington Town.

In a stop-start encounter the visitors to Borough Park held a slender lead at the break and built on it to claim a 26-16 victory at the close.

The first try came quickly and on the back of a Town error that handed their visitors a second set of six inside the Workington half.

And their wily half-back David Hewitt took full advantage as he dummied his way through the defence to go behind the sticks to touch down and leave himself an easy conversion.

But Town came right back at them and after earning a penalty of their own, they progressed down the field. The two half-backs combined and Sean Penkywicz ran at the line before popping a neat little pass to the supporting Gordon Maudling who charged over the line.

Jamie Doran stepped up to the kicking duties in the absence of Carl Forber and he slotted it over to level the scores.

A half break from Fuifui Moimoi earned another penalty as Oldham were caught holding down and Town took them on again. Penkywicz moved up through the middle and spotted support on the outside.

He put in a kick to the line and Perry Singleton won the race to touch it down but this time Doran could not add the extras.

Workington were then penalised several times in succession by referee Stephen Race and Oldham took advantage of the repeat sets as Danny Langtree dived over with Hewitt adding the extras to retake the lead at 12-10.

Oldham were fighting back and got a penalty just inside the Town half that they opted to kick and Hewitt was accurate to bring the advantage out to 14-10 for the visitors.

They then kept the ball alive well as they raced half the length of the field and had the Town defence in disarray before they forced a drop-out.

But, despite efforts from both sides the score remained at 14-10 to Oldham at the break.

The second half began in a bit of a feisty manner and first Gordon Maudling for Town and then Daniel Bridge were sent to cool their heels in the sin bin.

Russ Bolton then made a crucial tackle to put a half to the run of Harry Aaronson as Oldham began to up the pace.

On the 50 minute mark it took a great break from Zack McComb that opened up the Town defence and he was well supported by Langtree who flew towards the line, with Hewitt adding on the extras to take the visitors 10 points clear.

A Perry Singleton kick had to be pushed out of play as the centre and Russ Bolton hared after the ball down the left hand flank.

With 14 minutes to go the match came back to life as Fuifui Moimoi popped up the ball for Penkywicz close to the line and he barged over, with Doran converting to narrow the gap to just four points.

But just moments later Oldham struck back as Ritchie Hawkyard supported well to dance over the line, and leave the extras for Hewitt and that proved to be the crucial score.

Unfortunately at the final whistle there was a scuffle which the referee had to deal with but the points went home with Oldham.