Hornets got a taste of what was to come very early on. On Halifax's first two trips into the Hornets' half sleepy defence gave Penkywicz and Varkulis acres of space to score.

To their credit, Hornets roused from their slumber and took the game back to the visitors. On 8 minutes Dave McConnnell showed good pace to score; then three minutes later, Hornets' one-man forward line Tommy Goulden popped up in the right place to grab a try. Kev King converted both and Hornets had re-established parity.

But having clawed their way back into the game, on 22 minutes Hornets stood off Heaton and he took Halifax back in front at 18-12.

But Hornets came back. On 25 minutes, good approach work was capped by another Tommy Goulden try; Kev King levelled the scores.

In the run up to half time, Hornets played their most fluid football of the game; McConnell busy round the rucks, and the half backs willing to give the ball plenty of width. And this should have paid dividends when a sweeping move opened up Halifax's right flank and, with the line begging, Kev King was caught by a swathing high tackle.

There was little doubt that the only thing preventing him grounding ther ball was the fact that he almost had his head removed, but while the home crowd bayed for a penalty try and at least an 'on report' call from the ref, Mr Dawber wagged his finger and gave a penalty.

Kev King cleared his head enough to give Hornets a 20-18 lead at the break.

The second half belonged entirely to Halifax. As the Hornets pack disappeared into the background, repeatedly leaving the hard yards to the threquarter line, Halifax's big forwards seized the momentum.

With Watene and Southern playing a simple 'old fashioned' prop game of hitting the line wth purpose and looking for any opportunity to offload, Halifax had a platform to play some tidy football around an increasingly impotent Hornets.

Three tries in nine minutes at the start of the second half killed the game stone dead. Exploiting the fact that Hornets never really looked comfortable under the high ball, Halifax pinned Hornets in the corners and gleefully swept up the mistakes that followed. Two tries from Trinder and one from Heaton had Hornets reeling; and while the home side struggled to gain any meaningful shape, Halifax played through their sets and fended off Hornets feeble atempts to break them down.

The coup de grace came after 67 minutes when Varkulis ran half the length of the field to score.

With Hornets' stoic fans wondering where a win is coming from - and whether Saiints will need more bulbs in their scoreboard - Darren Abram gave a disappointed analysis: " It's only early, but we're already in a dogfight."

"We've got to get out of it together; our fitness levels seem fine and we are doing excellently in the first half. We're working on plans we've set, breaking teams down and scoring, but not to score a point three times in three games (in the second half) is a concern and we need to get to the bottom of it."

"It's a very disappointing result - we highlighted this as a potential win. We thought we were the better team in the first half; we were positive going in at half time, but you can't play the game without the ball."

Whether Hornets gave Halifax too much easy possessison is a moot point. With or without the ball, Hornets looked lost at times in the second half. Certainly, the key difference between the sides was Halifax's pack's willingness to do the hard graft when it mattered. On more than one occasion, it was the third tackle or later before a Hornets forward offered themselves up for a drive - and when the opposition pack suspects a lack of desire to engage the battle up front, it gives them all the encouragement they need.

But, as Darren Abram says, Hornets current issue of losing focus after the break (something that was hinted at after the post-collapse at Batley), needs careful and immediate attention.