Cougars 16 Wworkington Town 20 - GARY MOORBY'S hopes of ending the Cougar season with a victory were dashed as Workington held out for a win.

But the local side gave everything in a thrill-a-minute contest, and it was impossible to tell which team was battling it out at the top of the table and which was languishing third from bottom.

The performance emphasised the potential of the team - and that they have under-achieved all season.

The game was also a farewell to the game for popular prop Jason Clegg, who had struggled to juggle his work commitments as a paramedic with his love of rugby league.

He has decided to retire and went out on a high with a string of dynamic runs and some tackles that the Working lads, and Cougar fans, will remember for a long time.

However, the opening signs were ominous as Town scored with their first touch of the game. A Matty Firth kick was collected by full back Lusi Sione and he sliced through the Cougar defence to run almost the length of the field to touch down just 90 seconds into the game and Brett Smith tagged on the conversion.

Two minutes later Cougars hit back when Matt Steele strolled through after collecting Paul Ashton's crossfield kick.

Ashton put in an impressive performance throughout the afternoon and set up the second score with a slick pass to put Dave Foster in for a try. Ashton added the conversion and a penalty to open up a lead for the home side.

If only they had kept the defending as tight as in the early season they could have secured a rare win, but errors allowed Sion to score his second try and Johnny Limmer burst over from the play-the-ball to give the visitors a 16-12 half time lead.

Ashton cut the lead with a penalty, but forward John Tuimaualuga eased his giant frame past the defence to score out wide.

Cougars were not going down without a fight in their last match and three times looked certain to score, but were kept out by some crunching tackles on the line.

Ashton's third penalty took them to within a try of the Workington score, but despite the effort they were denied the final-match win they wanted to give their loyal fans something to celebrate after a long hard season.

"One again it was a very disappointing result, but the commitment and effort from the lads was there to all to see," said Gary Moorby.

"We had talked about it before the game and we wanted to give the fans something to cheer about after a very disappointing season. We also wanted to give Cleggy a good send off to the end of his career, but it didn't go the way we wanted.

"The game was very close and a neutral would not have known which team was going for promotion, but the errors we committed l;et us down again."

Moorby added: "Unfortunately the club has gone backwards since we had our success winning the play-offs in 2003 and we now have to look at ways of moving forward again."

A string of young playes have joined the regular first team line-up including Johnny Wainhouse, Lewis Taylor, Sam Gardner and Andrew Jackson, with Danny Murgatroyd making a big impact in his first full season in the senior squad.

"We have some great young players and have just missed a little on-field organisation and spark. We had some great performances, particularly against Hull KR and at Sheffield, but we never recovered from the defeat by York," Moorby said.