Whitehaven's teenage half-back Greg McNally stole the headlines with a hat-trick of tries in Thursday's 26-22 defeat of Salford City Reds.

"It couldn't get much better than that, especially beating Salford and taking their undefeated record off them," the 17-year-old told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"I dreamt of that when I was a kid. I had to pinch myself to be honest.

"It was physical, and a lot faster, and at one point I was blowing but you've got to stick in there."

Boss Ged Stokes was delighted with the impact of his young stars, having handed debuts to McNally and hooker Chris Smith, as well as keeping faith with David Ford and Danny Barker.

"What we wanted to do was make the debut of the two players special, and I'll remember that one," he said.

"McNally was composed, he looked like he'd been playing at this level for about five years.

"There is an element of risk when you change your team and put youngsters in, but it proves the point that if you keep doing the same thing you get the same results.

"We had to change a few things, and we came up with the goods."