Proud North Wales Crusaders coach Anthony Murray hailed his side's character following their impressive 36-28 comeback victory at London Skolars.

After successive heavy defeats against Bradford and York, Murray had demanded a reaction from his side in the capital.

Things began inauspiciously as the visitors' poor completion rate allowed Skolars to open up a 16-10 half-time advantage.

But the tide turned after the interval as second row Simon Atherton and fullback Tommy Johnson crossed for Crusaders tries to complement a pair of successful penalties and open up a 28-16 advantage.

Skolars reduced arrears with a try of their own soon afterwards, but another Baker try earned his side their third away victory this season.

Murray said: "It was really pleasing to see that improvement after a pretty poor first half from ourselves.

"At times early on it felt like a continuation of the York game and typical of how poor we've been with the ball at times this season.

"Failing to complete our sets has been a big problem, and I think the fact our completion rate was around the 30 percent mark while theirs was around 60 in that first half tells its own story.

"We were falling off tackles and gave possession away too cheaply for my liking and that invited too much pressure onto ourselves.

"But we stuck at it and despite London throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us and there was only six points in it at half-time.

"So at the break we spoke to the players about sticking to the gameplan we had originally gone there with and making sure that we got the basics right.

"The players delivered straight away because there was a real transformation in that second half. We kept the ball well and exerted a lot more pressure on the game ourselves, which was really pleasing to see."

The result keeps the Wrexham club within reach of the cluster of play-off chasing teams, who sit five points above them in the table.

With phase one of the league campaign now past its midway point, Murray is optimistic that his side can claw back that deficit and improve on their current position of 10th.

"A lot of those sides that we're chasing have still got to come to the Queensway and there are plenty of points still to play for" added Murray.

"Shipping 80 points over the previous two games wasn't good enough from our point of view, but at the end of the day we were up against the league's top two sides.

"We have to be realistic and know we're not going to win every game in this division, but I expect is to be competitive in each game we play.

"And the fact is that we're still in there and capable of closing that gap on the teams around us and making this a successful season."

Pacesetters Bradford Bulls hammered Doncaster 56-14, while York remain two points adrift of them in second after their 46-14 triumph at Keighley.

Hemel Stags lost 60-12 at Workington, Newcastle were 46-12 victors at home to Coventry, Oldham were edged out in a 16-12 loss at Hunslet while Whitehaven stormed to a 66-6 victory at struggling West Wales Raiders.