On yet another frustrating afternoon, Hornets found themselves out-enthused by a Doncaster side reduced to twelve men after just 12 minutes. Paul Mansson's departure for late, shoulder-led chargedown on Latham Tawhai served to galvanise Doncaster's already sky-high team spirit and expose the chronic lack of confidence that bubbles under the surface here at Hornets at the moment.

But it looked so different in the period before half time. First Tawhai carved up a huge gap in the Dons' defence to be felled. Then Cooper backed himself to skate 60 metres up the touchline, hauled down just short. With the supporting Tawhai clattered by a defender scrambling back Woody took the two. It was cancelled out by a Woodcock effort before Tawhai again found huge yards through the centres and fed high-speed Casey Mayberry, who left defenders in his wake to score a top notch try. 8-2 at half time and Hornets had played some of their most cohesive and creative football of the season.

But it was Doncaster who came out blazing in the second half - just two minutes on the clock when Moana slotted a slide-rule grubber behind the line for Baker to dive in between hesitant defenders.

Richard Pachniuk restored the advantage just four minutes later - a trademark close range effort - before conceding a strangely familiar Baker try, scooting in on a Moana grubber with defenders slow to react. But Hornets still looked ok when, right on the hour, Latham Tawhai again rent the Dons defence assunder. Capitalising on a huge Dave Larder drive, he outpaced the chasing cover from 50 metres to score. Woody cooly converted and, having added a penalty minutes later, Hornets looked home and hosed at 22-14.

But this game can be a sod sometimes. First Maea David's strong burst found Marvin Golden with enough momentum to crash through weak tackling to score. Then - having been gifted three back to back sets - the Dons dropped the ball cold in the tackle and it was dropped on by Wes Rogers. Referee Thaler amazed everyone by giving a knock on and, from the resulting scrum, Anton garcia took advantage of Danny Wood's slow recovery from the previous tackle to score. Unlike the game at Ashton a fortnight ago, Woodcock slotted home the conversion and, in the 81st minute of normal time, Doncaster found themselves in front.

Gamely Hornets recovered possesion from a short kick off and desperately tried to set up a break, but The Dons held firm and the game was gone. 22-24.

Undoubtedly, the Mansson sending off pushed the Dragons into redoubling their efforts and the scale of the spirit that delivered this win was evident at the hooter.

It's easy to say that 13 should always beat 12, but that's not always the case. Not wanting to take the gloss off a gutsy Doncaster performance, Wakefield whistler Ben Thaler looked way out of his depth in this one, clueless at times compounded by puzzling inconsistency. It says much that Hornets fans believe he cost them the game, whilst Dragons fans believe they won it despite his efforts. Back into the Conference you go, Benny boy - you haven't got a clue.

But refs don't miss tackles or drop passes. Hally will again be absolutely livid that we had a game by the nuts and let it go. At 22-14, Hornets were in a prime position to kill the game stone dead - much like we did at Workington. But passes were forced, tackles were missed and Doncaster have a victory they'll look back on at the end of the season as a very big win indeed.

As for Hornets, Hally's got to regroup, restore dented confidence and prepare for what promises to be a torrid encounter against the old enemy in the inaugural game of the National Cup.