"It's just about being a bit more clinical," says Panthers' Keyes

Fax came into the fixture on the back of three straight league defeats - all of them against teams who are currently sitting in the top four.

Despite being on the wrong end of results, the Panthers continued to churn out valiant performances. Their efforts were ultimately rewarded in the 42-6 thrashing of Workington - a win which saw Keyes put 18 points on the board.

“It’s good to be back in the winner’s circle,” said the 26-year-old. “Real tough performance. I thought second-half we fell off a bit, but loads to take out of that. Some really good attacking stuff, and some real tough defending on our line.

“It’s been coming. The shape has been there. It’s just about being a bit more clinical and I thought we were really clinical in that first half. We could’ve scored two or three more. Good defence from Workington, holding us up a couple of times. I thought they had a real dig.

“It was good to get over for a try myself, for the boys to run a bit of shape, move them about a bit and put a few points on.”

The win over Workington has moved Halifax up to tenth in the Championship standings. Keyes now hopes his side can capitalize on their newly-found momentum when they welcome Whitehaven at the Shay this weekend.

He said: “We just need to build on it now. We’ve got another tough game next week, Whitehaven, who’ve had a good start to the year. We’ll do our homework on them this week and get stuck into some video. [We’ll] work hard again and hopefully we can build on this win and start getting a few wins under our belt after a tough start.”