Jekyll & Hyde

After a great fight back against Yarnbury last week, Keighley were hoping to continue in the same vain straight from the kick off this week, unfortunately, this didn’t happen and Otley, thanks to good support work and some lack lustre defence from Keighley, scored within moments of the start of the game.
However, instead of crumbling, Keighley knuckled down, the pack began to assert continuous pressure on the visitors, most of the play being inside the Otley half. Elliot Barker and Max Humphrey working hard with Connor Taylor also heavily involved. This led to a well earned try a piece from Elliot and Max, the latter try being converted by Nick Holdroyd.
Keighley continued to dominate for most of this half, unfortunately, against the run of play, Otley scored a converted try from a break away on the half way line. The visitor’s backs began to show some good handling skills, continually making lots of ground until the pressure finally told with a try right on the half time whistle. This meant that Otley were now leading a well contested match at 12 – 17.
Everybody was looking forward to an evenly fought second half and early on this was the case, until, after a period of Keighley pressure on the Otley line, the visitors intercepted and ran the full length of the pitch to score under the posts. This seemed to knock some stuffing out of the home side which was not helped by an injury to Elliot, a stalwart of the pack, who had to be taken off.
The next 2 Otley try’s however, were due not to Keighley errors, but to excellent handling and keen support play by the visitors backs. Keighley retaliated by some good driving forward play, Nathan Raja and Ryan Bains being at the forefront, pinning Otley in their own 22, unfortunately, from a dropped ball, Otley were able to run the length of the field to score once more. After this, a dispirited Keighley team conceded a further 3 try’s taking the score to 12 – 60 before the final whistle.
Once again Keighley showed their Jekyll and Hyde side producing an excellent performance against a very good Otley side in the first half, only to let things slip in a disastrous second half, the faithful supporters are still waiting for a consistent whole match performance, which I’m sure is bound to come as the team gains more experience and injured players return.