After a couple of early scares, Hornets were first on the scoreboard on 12 minutes. Radney Bowker dummied and shimmied through the Halifax defence, leaving tacklers in his wake on a 50 metre dash; Mark McCully backed up and his neat pass sent Chris Campbell screaming in for a fantastic try. McCully banged over the extras from the touchline.

Six minutes later, a Halifax indiscretion gave McCully the chance to slot over a penalty to stretch Hornets' lead. Whilst Halifax looked dangerous on attack, the outside threequarters repeatedly found Weisner's passes hard to handle and their only scores in the first half hour were two penalties.

On the 30 minute mark, referee Ganson picked Lee Doran at randon and dispatched him for ten minutes for interference at the play the ball. Halifax took full advantage and, by the time the hooter closed the first half, they'd racked up 15 more unanswered points comprising tries from MacDonald, Larder and Weisner, a Weisner conversion and a Weisner dropgoal.

Hornets 19-8 down and, frankly, looking all over the place.

But if good coaches earn their keep with their half time team talks, yesterday's must have been a classic. Hornets returned to the field a transformed side and it took just 4 minutes to deliver a response; Radney Bowker's pinpoint grubber behind Hadcroft, Campbell stuffing him for pace to score.

It was Bowker tormenting the 'fax defence again five minutes later. His incicive break setting up a try for McCully; Hornets back within a point; Halifax stunned.

Weisner gave Halifax a little breathing space with a penalty, but with the Hornets pack repeatedly slamming the Halifax defence back downfield, Bobbie Goulding's team was now on top. Just past the hour Bowker repeated his kicking trick behind the hapless Hadcroft, who turned just in time to see Chris Campbell put the ball down for his hat-trick.

McCully missed the conversion, but took a penalty minutes later and Hornets were 22-21 to the good with ten minutes to play.

Halifax threw everything they had at the Hornets defence, and came up with nothing after three repeat sets On 75 minutes a Halifax forward appeared to lose the ball in the tackle, the Hornets fans bayed for the knock-on, Mr Ganson chose not to consult his touch judge who'd stood off and with Hornets defence stretched, Gibson found Sherriffe who scored in the corner. 25-24 would have been a travesty, really.

But, unlike Halifax, this Hornets side know that every one of the eighty minutes count and, with four miutes remaining, went in search of the win. On 78 minutes a Bowker hoisted a huge bomb to the 'fax posts, and with full-back Gibson filling his shorts, big Jon Hill dived in headlong only to lose the ball as he went to ground it. A tremendous effort.

From the resulting scrum, Halifax prop Boult coughed the ball and with time left for one tackle, Hornets cocked the hammer. Sam Butterworth gathered the ball from the back of the scrum and went on a weaving run across the face of the defence; Chris Giles made the extra man and took the ball through the tightest of gaps; Dave Alstead took a perfectly flighted pass and crashed straight through his opposite number to seal the game.

With the tremendous Hornets support ringing in his ears, McCullly rubbed it in in good style with a superb touchline conversion; and with Hornets already celebrating, the hooter sounded before Halifax could re-start. Breathtaking stuff.

Afterwards, Bobbie Goulding said: "You make your own luck. The harder you try, the luckier you become - and we must be trying hard!"

But this wasn't all about luck. It was a demonstration of the spirit that Bobbie's team has - and a reminder that, when this team clicks, we're as good as anyone in this division.

There's no doubt that, as performances go, the second half at the Shay was as good as it gets. Hard-working, committed and with the sort of flair that left Halifax's half backs looking pretty ordinary.

Anthony Farrell said afterwards that his first job on Monday was to go through the video: enjoy, it Faz. We did!