Wath Upon Dearne 17 Keighley 8

The first twenty minutes of the first half went well for Keighley they attained good field positions through the accurate kicking of outside half Alex Brown and full back Danny McGee. The deadlock was broken by a penalty from Keighley centre Ben Blackwell. Although Keighley attacked with some vigour the opposition did not commit all their forwards to the breakdown and as a result had a solid defence which contained the visitors. After absorbing a great deal of pressure and with half time looming Wath used their forwards to take play deep into Keighley territory which eventually resulted in a penalty for their outside half Andrew Appleyard. A few minutes later Appleyard added to his points tally with a well taken try.

In the second Keighley were intent on taking the game to the opposition with fine grafting play from the forwards with veteran second row Steve Welsh in good form. Good possession was used well by the three quarters, but once again the Wath pressure defence held strong. Wath returned play to the Keighley half and came close to scoring on a number of occasions, but strong defence held them out. Eventually Keighley managed to break through. An inch perfect pass gave debutant centre Allan Ebbrell the chance to break free, although tackled by the last defender the ball was quickly recycled and a few quick passes found the hands of winger Adam Horsfall who scored wide out. The last ten minutes or so of the game favoured Wath, although they were unable to score due to a stonewall defence; they managed to force Keighley into conceding three kickable penalties which Appleyard gratefully converted.

This Saturday Keighley travel to near neighbours Heath, given current form this should be a keenly fought game.