Keighley Academy 19 - 29 Old Otliensians

With Halloween just around the corner , Keighley Academy were keen not to produce their own horror show .
Things didn't start well well losing Influential forward Martin Curr during warm up with a continuing hamstring problem.
Old Otliensians travelled to Rose Cottage with a young, well drilled team and were first to open the scoring on 8 minutes with a try under the sticks. An easy conversion making the score 0-7.
On 13 minutes after a good break from Liam Everett , Henry Shoesmith scored a superb solo try after selling a nice dummy to fool the Ensians defence to score under the posts. A Micky Phillips conversion making it all square at 7-7.
Otliensiens were now playing the more fluent attacking rugby and Keighley defended doggedly , but a lapse in concentration created a gap which the away team took full advantage of with their 2nd converted try of the afternoon to increase their lead .
Keighley then had an opportunity to close the gap with a penalty kick , but failed in their attempt to keep the scores at 7-14. Micky Phillips was next on the score sheet with a well worked try after good work from Nathan Berry. Unable to add the extras Keighley had bridged the gap to 12-14. Keighley continued to defend valiantly including a try saving tackle in the corner from man of the match Henry Pratt. On 36 minutes Otliensians were awarded a penalty which was duly converted to make it 12-17.
With half time beckoning live wire Shoesmith and Liam Everett ran the angles perfectly for Everett to hit the gap and race through to score under the posts . An Everett conversion gave Keighley a well earned half time lead of 19-17.
The Second half saw both teams squander possession at vital moments and fail to add to their scores. On 65 minutes the deadlock was broken as Otliensians capitalised on a Keighley mistake to race 70 metres to score a converted try. Although Keighley had surrendered the lead , they continued to enjoy some good spells of pressure with Ben Lazenby dominating the line outs. Unfortunately the possession couldn't be converted into points. On 80 minutes Otliensians , benefitting from a tired Keighley defence closed the scoring with an unconverted try to make the final score 19-29.
Keighley suffered a further setback in injury time , losing the impressive Henry Pratt with a broken collarbone.
This was a much improved team performance from Keighley which hopefully can continue as the Academy travel to Cleckheaton next Saturday.