Cleckheaton hooker Steve Worsley feels that his side would have stood a better chance of beating derby rivals Bradford & Bingley if they had followed their game-plan.

He said: "They are a strong team but I don't think we were particularly happy with the way we played.

"To lose 34-19 when we didn't play well at all gives us some hope, and we did finish the match well by moving our attacks wider and scoring a try.

"Maybe we should have done that earlier, but they played to their game-plan and we didn't play to ours.

"Their back row was quicker to the breakdown, and that was probably the key."

Cleckheaton took an early lead when scrum half Joey Nau's kick downfield was run back by the hosts, second row Richard Wilson broke a tackle in the left centre position and the attack swung right for debutant winger Tom Lauriston to cross.

Bees right winger Joe Simpson went over in the right-hand corner three minutes later, after referee Ian Robinson checked the effort with his touch judge, so both sides had scored from their first attacks, and the visitors almost crossed again in the seventh minute.

They eventually took the lead 12 minutes later in typical counter-attacking fashion. Nau collected Cleckheaton full back Chris Quinn's downfield kick, full back Ben Greaves broke through the middle and flanker Latu Makaafi scored, fly half Tom Rhodes converting, and five minutes later powerful debutant centre Taunaholo Taufahema crossed following a arcing run to make it 17-5.

But just before half-time, second row Barry Clark was sin-binned for persistent infringement, Robinson awarding a penalty try which fly half Glenn Boyd converted.

Down by only five points, it was vital that Cleckheaton got the first try of the second half, but that went to Ben Greaves in the 46th minute as the Bees began to make steady inroads.

It was at this stage that Cleckheaton brought on Kiwis Tom Gwilliam and Cameron O'Connor for Quinn and Carl Mason, the Bees replacing Mike Limmas in the front row with fellow new boy Danny Greenhalgh.

Both captains were addressed by Robinson as the contest got a little tetchy, and Cleckheaton had to show great resolve to keep out left winger Mark Kirkby and second row Bloues Volschenk in separate attacks.

Nevertheless, there was no stopping Simpson crossing for his second try in the 63rd minute - and 13 minutes later Hall was helped over for what he believes might be his only try of the campaign, so rarely do props score.

However, Cleckheaton finished the stronger, new scrum half Dominic Castle scoring in the 76th minute and they could have added another had they been a shade more positive and replacement prop Steve Johnson not thrown an inaccurate pass.