Keighley 13 Durham City 14

Keighley attacked from the off, with captain Leigh Sugden to the fore the forwards imposed themselves on the opposition. Eventually, after a series of rucks the pressure told, a neat pass from scrum half Danny Lester down the blindside gave hooker Will Armitage the chance to cross in the corner.

Although both teams were evenly matched, Durham managed to dominate the lineouts. Regaining their confidence after the early pressure Durham moved play into Keighley territory. Just before half time a plentiful supply of clean possession and good close support from the forwards led to a ruck in the Keighley twenty two metre area. Durham’s lively scrum half Paul Armstrong found a gap on the edge of the ruck and dived over between the posts, converted by centre K. Dias.

The second half was very much an arm wrestle, with Keighley holding their own and mounting some promising attacks through Scott Dyson and the powerful centre paring of Ferrazzano and Blackwell. Unfortunately for Keighley the deadlock was broken when their scrum half was red carded for retaliation. Even though they had a player dismissed Keighley were surprisingly awarded a penalty for the original offence which Ben Blackwell gratefully converted.

With Scott Dyson operating at scrum half Keighley through excellent defence stemmed a number of Durham attacks. However, after a debatable penalty decision Durham put the ball into touch near the Keighley line. A take and drive from the lineout put Keighley under extreme pressure, the maul was driven over the line and scrum half Armstrong claimed his second try, which he also converted.

As the final whistle beckoned Keighley with some superb handling from the forwards forced their way to the Durham twenty two, quick ball gave outside half Danny McGee the time to float a long pass to Winger Mick Phillips who crossed in the corner. Unfortunately for Keighley centre Ben Blackwell was unable to land the difficult conversion. Next Saturday Keighley travel north to Darlington.