London Broncos kept their hopes of finishing in the top four of the Kingstone Press Championship alive after a hard-fought 40-24 win over Whitehaven at The Hive on Sunday afternoon.

The Broncos got off to a terrific start with early tries from debutant Jason Walton and scrum-half Oscar Thomas, both of which were converted by Wes Naiqama.

But Whitehaven soon closed the gap with two tries in three minutes from Declan Hulme and Chris Taylor - one of which was converted - to bring the scores to 12-10 in the hosts' favour.

It remained that way until just before half-time before the Broncos moved ahead with two converted tries in quick succession, Matt Garside and Iliess Macani going over the line to bring the score to 24-10 at the break, leaving the Broncos now comfortably in control.

The momentum was to shift in the early stages of the second half, however.

Tries for Whitehaven from Hulme, Newton and Hulme once more - after some defensive errors from the Broncos - meant that the score was level at 24-24 with 20 minutes to go.

With all their play-off rivals in action, it was vital for the Broncos to make a quick response. And five minutes later prop Jamie Thackray did just that, diving under the posts to edge them into the lead again.

With Walton and Thomas each adding their second tries of the game in the closing stages to make it 40-24, the final scoreboard made the game look rather more comfortable than it had actually been.

With Featherstone’s narrow loss at home to Dewsbury, the gap to the play-off places is now down to two points with three rounds to play.