Halifax had looked dead and buried at the break, trailing 26-9 having shown nothing of the flair and adventure that marked their first half display two weeks earlier.

A decent period at the start of the second half then brought the score back to 26-21 in the home side's favour.

But while Wharfedale had the guile and the momentum to turn a lost cause into a winning situation, sadly Halifax failed to turn the screw in the same way and Blaydon were allowed to run out quite comfortable winners.

The brutal truth is that at no time did Halifax really look as though they would secure their first win of the season, despite Joe Knowles putting the first points on the board with an early penalty.

There was a strange lack of intensity to Halifax's game - a lethargy that they could not shake off - and that, coupled with some weak defending, handling errors and wrong options, gave them precious little to work with.

Blaydon were hard-working if unspectacular and therein lay one of the major differences.

They defended stoutly when they had to and hit some fine lines at pace to break some ineffective defence. As a result they deserved the win and the long, long inquest by the Halifax squad on the pitch after the final whistle told its own story.

The visitors could also point to disruptions within the team. Ben Mitchell spent an awful long time stretched out on the deck having taken a hard shot to the head before being led off. He was later taken to hospital for precautionary tests.

Then No 8 Richard Brown had to be withdrawn in the second half with a shoulder problem while Craig Aikman, who had only arrived back in the country from England Counties duties in France at midnight on Friday, felt the pace and was withdrawn midway through the second period.

The disruptions should have been minimal with all three replaced by players familiar with their respective positions in the shape of former Yorkshire under 20 winger turned flanker Dan Solomi, ex Orrell back row forward Rob Townend and Army scrum half Ryan Walsh.

But it wasn't to be.

The early signs had looked promising, the forwards putting in some hard graft to pressure Blaydon on their own 22m line.

After three times collapsing a scrum in front of their posts, the referee lost patience and Knowles snapped up the chance to put Halifax ahead with the penalty.

Blaydon's response was rapid and superbly executed as a quick break ended with a penalty which they opted to run and great off-loading saw Andrew Fenby race in, Dan Kyle missing the conversion.

The first change saw Mitchell led away to be replaced by Solomi and again Halifax showed great strength in the forwards to hammer away at the Blaydon line only to be thwarted by some tight and equally strong defence.

Both sides struggled to put any phases together in a scrappy first half.