NORTH WALES CRUSADERS suffered a Challenge Cup humbling as they were knocked out in a 16-14 defeat at amateur club Thatto Heath.

Despite staging a late comeback in the fourth round clash and being close to taking the tie to golden point extra time, North Wales were second best for large spells and were out-muscled, out-thought and out-enthused by Thatto Heath.

The home side defended superbly, particularly in the second-half, to keep the visitors out and hung on at the end to secure a memorable victory.

Thatto took the lead when Lewis Foster spotted a gap in the defensive line to scoot over from acting half.

Warren Thompson went close to replying before Thatto had a big opportunity to extend their lead after a nice shift to the left wing, but Matty Norton’s final pass to Niall Allen was forward and flew into touch.

Thatto didn’t make the same mistake when they next found themselves in good field position as Connor Dwyer forced his way over down the left, despite Gavin Conroy’s efforts to hold him up in-goal.

However, North Wales did pull one back shortly before half-time through Rob Massam, who picked up the ball at acting half and barged his way over in the left corner.

The hosts were given a penalty early in the second half and opted to kick for goal, but Bobbie Goulding dragged it wide of the sticks.

Thatto did build on their lead soon after, though, as a North Wales attack was charged down and Norton collected the loose ball to race clear underneath the posts.

Although the away side had Simon Atherton’s effort down the right ruled out for a knock-on, Chris Worrall manage to cross in the same corner as they began to stage a comeback.

North Wales thought they’d taken the tie to golden point extra time when Rob Massam collected Earl Hurst’s pass to grab his second late on, but Ben Stead missed the conversion to draw Cru level.

The League One club piled forward for another try in the dying seconds but Thatto held on to grab their place in this week’s draw.

St Helens had to come from behind to maintain their unblemished Super League record, defeating Hull KR 36-24.

Blake Austin scored four tries as Warrington thrashed Hull 63-12 to continue their flying start while Leeds sealed a thrilling 21-20 victory over Castleford.

Huddersfield beat London Broncos 38-26, Wakefield saw off Salford 33-22 and Wigan thrashed Catlans 42-0 with Joe Burgess scoring a hat-trick of tries.