These brutal statistics are testimony to the lack of control - and questionable ability - of referee Ben Thaler, who bemused, angered and frustrated both sets of players and supporters from first whistle to the last.

Despite Mr Thaler's best efforts to suck any momentum out of the game, Hornets were 12-0 to the good after 20 minutes with a simple try out wide by Mick Nanyn followed by a powerful jink and step by Paul Smith.

But Swinton repeatedly found themselves on some excellent field position courtesy of a string of pedantic penalties and finally scored after Paul Owen comitted a rare error under a towering bomb from Chris Hough, who followed up and took advantage to burrow in.

It was, to be fair, tthe only blot on Owen's copybook as he went on to have a quite superb defensive game, pulling off several vital on-on-one tackles.

Swinton took full advantage of the game's disintegration. With just minutes of the second half gone they eventually benefited from consecutive sets in Hornets 20 metre zone (and Jon Roper in the sin-bin) to score through Bithel. Hough converted. A penalty minutes later gave Swinton parity and the game descended from a mess into a shambles.

Simon Knox's ludicrous punch at a tackle drew retaliation from Paul Southern - both players were sin-binned for the ensuing 'handbags' and the incident was also put on report. Mr Thaler was certainly working his way through the repertoire.

With the teams now playing 12 v 11, Hornets worked hard against the tide of penalties to put Matt Long into space to score. And with Swinton defiant, but beaten, Paul Owen scored a trademark try to cap a great night's work from him.

In the end, a win's a win - but this was a stop-start, messy affair dominated by the bloke in the yellow and black stripes.

When both sets of supporters sing 'you don't know what you're doing', you know you've got a bad 'un. And this bloke is as bad as it gets.