MYTON Warriors tightened their grip on third spot in the Conference Division One table with a hard-fought 26-14 victory at Normanton Knights
Stand-off Nathan Slater stole the show with his hat-trick of tries, with Ash and Lee James also bagging a score each.
Back-to-back defeats in the middle of August threatened to derail the Warriors' assault for third place, which would be richly deserved given the side's relegation from the Premier Division last year.
Sadly, promotion straight back up won't be on the agenda, with Rochdale Mayfield and Oulton Raiders racing ahead in the top two places.
Myton took just five minutes to open the scoring when a superb Kris Walker kick to the corner was collected by winger Lee James to pounce.
There was no conversion, but it got even better for Myton seven minutes later.
Normanton were on the attack with Adrian Mulcahy pulling out a long pass to the wing, but it was intercepted by try-machine Slater.
He found the pace and raced 60 metres to the line, leaving Ash James an easy conversion for 10-0.
Seven minutes from half-time, the visitors turned the screw even further when Dave Ferguson went close to adding another try. A quick play the ball saw Ash James power over and add the conversion, before a late first-half effort from the Knights' Aaron Butterfield made the score 16-4.
The contest became interesting four minutes into the second half when Mulcahy went in for an unconverted try, but normal service was resumed eight minutes later.
A ball out wide saw Slater in for his second, with Ash James converting to make it 22-8 in Myton's favour.
Normanton scored again six minutes from time when Ryan Kelsey scored off a kick, with Mulchay converting.
However, the game was eventually put to bed for Tony Spence's side in the final minute as Slater rounded the defence to complete his memorable hat-trick.
SKIRLAUGH slipped into the relegation places after a heart-breaking 22-18 loss at Leigh Miners Rangers.
Colin Brown's men led 12-0 at half-time but capitulated at the home of the play-off hopefuls.
