THATTO Heath lost on the road once again as Wath Brow Hornets grabbed a 22-8 win to mount pressure on the away side in the race for the top four.

Three of Thatto Heath’s defeats this season have come in away games meaning Wath Brow move to just one point behind Thatto in third place, with two games in hand.

Despite the away side having the majority of possession, they couldn’t capitalise on field position due to a number of costly errors and penalties.

A double from Wath Brow’s Mark Watson saw Ian Rooney’s side come away with the two competition points, but in truth the game was much more valuable.

Thatto Heath would start the better of the two sides, however, couldn’t cross the whitewash, often looking void of ideas, this ultimately allowed Wath Brow into the game.

With a quarter of the game gone the home side began their assault, first crossing through Clark Riley before Watson grabbed his first half double.

Going into half time with a 12-0 deficit, a dreadful kicking display in which all three conversions were missed, gave the away side a glimmer of hope.

Yet Thatto Head Coach Richard Owen had a mammoth task ahead of him to psych his side up for the fight ahead.

Early signs in the second half looked promising, much like the first Thatto came out all guns blazing, and this time managed to cross for two tries to launch their revival.

Fullback Dan Birkett was imperative to Thatto’s comeback first offloading for Adam Prendergast before sending Matty Norton through a gap.

This blistering start to the half would have seen the away side draw level, however, Bobbie Goulding followed the script of missing conversions, the scores 12-8.

The game would settle down into more of a midfield tussle, neither side wanting to give up anything in a bid to win.

However, trailing on the scoreboard Thatto had to expel that bit more energy in order to win. This would show in the later stages of the half.

First halfback Callum Farrer jinked his way through some weak goal-line defence before Luke Davison crossed in the corner with two minutes remaining.

These two late tries killing off any chance of a comeback the scores extended to 22-8 for Wath Brow.

Thatto will now look to next week’s fixture, in the Challenge trophy, as they face another tough trip to West Hull.