Keighley Academy 41 - 5 Cleckheaton 3

With no other Keighley team having a fixture on the Saturday it would have been easy to Cherry pick the strongest team possible . But that isn't the Academy way . Instead manager Loz Marklew stuck to his guns picking a team including 8 youngsters.
It was evident from the kick off that if Keighley could give the ball some air to the backs, an older and more experienced Cleckheaton team may well struggle to cope.
Keighley were out of the blocks quickly when Martin Curr split from the base of a ruck and broke 2 tackles to score an unconverted try. Wanting to gain a stranglehold on the game early doors , Keighley yet again went on the attack with a break by Micky Phillips who supplied Pete Watson, showing great pace and strength before offloading to Andrew Marklew who in turn found Nathan Raja who crashed over near the posts. Jordan Powell converted to give Keighley a 12-0 lead with only 6 minutes on the clock.
On 20 minutes Keighley suffered an injury blow losing Jordan Powell with a suspected leg fracture when challenging for a 50/50 ball. Keen not to lose momentum Nathan Berry led the way with a barnstorming 50 yard try. An Andrew Marklew conversion stretched the lead further to 19-0.
A rare spell of Cleckheaton pressure saw the visitors open their account with a close range unconverted try on the half hour mark closing the gap to 19-5.
Ryan Gibson making his debut for the Academy made an immediate impact on his introduction , making a 65 yard break before supplying Rossi Lacey to go over in the corner bringing the half to a close with a commanding 24-5 scoreline.
The second half started as the first half ended with Lacey adding a second after fast hands through the Keighley attack. A missed conversion making the score 29-5. On 50 minutes Martin Curr split a tiring "Cleck" defence , offloading to Ryan Gibson who showed a clean pair of heels to score his debut Academy try, another failed conversion attempt 34-5. Gibson enjoying his role in the backs showed great maturity with a clever "show and go" to split the defence and race in under the posts. Converting his own try Keighley's lead stretched to 41-5.
For the remainder of the game Keighley appeared to get sucked into a forward battle in middle of the park , making the game more a war of attrition including a 10 minute spell of Cleckheaton pressure , but for some superb dogged defence the score could have been closer.
The biggest positive from today's game was the performance of the Academy's "Young Guns" who are improving week by week