Keighley Albion 10 New Earswick All Blacks 18 The old adage - It's a game of two halves summed up Keighley Albion's performance against York side New Earswick All Blacks on Saturday.

Looking to avenge the defeat to the All Blacks earlier in the season, Albion started brightly and were leading at the halfway point.

Into the second half, however, it was the All Blacks who gained the upper hand as their forwards set the platform for them to win a close fought match.

On a heavy pitch it was always going to be a battle between both sets of forwards.

For Albion, Matthew Mount never took a backward step all afternoon. Man-of-the-Match Scott Bellamy also put in another superb performance in attack and defence as did Steve Wrench until he had to leave the field in the second half following a clash of heads.

Hooker Alan Pallister, second row Dan Wellard and Ben Jones each put in an excellent performance for the visitors but it was the great defence and non stop running of prop Wayne Foster that was the standout performance amongst the All Blacks pack.

Albion opened the scoring after some great defence from Andy Stokes and Wrench caused them to spill the ball. Frustrated with the lost possession, the All Blacks conceded two early penalties that were converted by Harry Burns. Bobby Brown was looking for early openings and twice some neat kick throughs from him into the All Blacks in goal area nearly resulted in touchdowns for Steve Cullen and Ricky Broughton.

Both sides continued to slug it out in the forwards with Chris Dooling, Wayne Smith and Mount working hard for Albion but it was the York side who were next to score. The All Blacks drove into the Albion half through Foster, Pallister and Wellard and Jones put a neat kick over into the corner. Albion failed to field the ball and All Black winger Dean Smith nipped in to get the touchdown. A touchline conversion from Jones put the All Blacks in front 6-4 on the half-hour mark.

Albion came back at All Blacks and good play from Jon Gwilliam saw him send a quick ball out to Cullen who created the space to send Broughton clear on a 30-metre dash down field. Albion's support play of late has been excellent but unfortunately for Broughton there was no support on this occasion and Albion couldn't capitalise on the advantage.

Albion ended the half with the better of the possession but lacked direction and couldn't create the break they needed in open play.

It was a display of raw power from Bellamy that gave Albion their score right at half-time. Stokes slipped the ball to Bellamy ten metres off the All Blacks line and Bellamy wrestled his way over with Burns adding the extras to make it 10-6.

Into the second half, it was New Earswick that got the early score. Good progress was made again by Foster and Wellard and a quick play of the ball saw Pallister bulldoze his way over for the try with Jones adding the conversion to give the All Blacks a lead.

As the second half progressed, Albion seemed unable to make the right decision and lost their shape in attack. Whereas the All Blacks were completing their sets, Albion forced the ball on too many occasions giving possession away far too cheaply.

With the score seemingly deadlocked and full-time approaching it was going to take a piece of individual skill to seal the game. In the last five minutes it was another astute kick from Jones that won the game for New Earswick. As he chipped over the Albion line, he weighted it perfectly for it to hold in the in goal area and he was first to the ball to touch down for a well deserved try.

This Saturday, Albion host Stainland Stags in the Halifax Cup. Kick-off is at 2pm.

Slaithwaite Saracens A 10 Keighley Albion A 40 Keighley Albion's A extended their unbeaten run to 11 games with a comprehensive victory over Slaithwaite.

Albion scored two converted tries in the first ten minutes through Danny Bowness and Steve Fitzpatrick, with Dean Brookes and Bowness adding a conversion each.

Slaithwaite replied on 25 minutes against the run of play, with a well taken converted try in the corner.

Straight from the restart, Brookes retrieved the ball and Mark Smith punished some weak tackling to score under the posts. Bowness converted. Albion were totally dominant for the remainder of the half and scored two further tries through Ian Spencer and a second to Mark Smith. Bowness converted both tries to make it 30-6 at half-time.

Slaithwaite caught Albion napping straight from the kick-off when loose forward Justin Brown scored a well taken try in the corner. However, this was the last time they troubled the Albion line.

Albion's strong defence with Phil Hunter and Gary Boocock to the fore kept the opposition pinned in their own half. This frustrated Slaithwaite and led to some bad tempered exchanges which resulted in Slaith-waite being reduced to 12 men and Albion to 11 for the last ten minutes.

This only strengthened Albion's resolve and they scored two further tries from Bowness and John Willy. Bowness converted his own try and finished with 18 points.

The next Albion A game is away to Whitworth on Saturday, December 16. Kick-off is at 2pm.

Halifax Irish A 25 Keighley Town A 16 This was a much improved effort by Town and if they would have had as much luck as Irish did then things would have been different.

Town fielded a young side with an average age of 22, but they battled to the end against a more experienced side. Town's youngsters did play some fast open rugby and had Irish on the back foot for much of the game.

Town lost their captain Metcalf early on this meant that Danny Spencer had to take control of things on the pitch and he took up the challenge with ease supported by Jason Benn.

Town's first try came once again from Gillard after Benn had knocked Irish out of the way.

The second try came in the second half when Town's pack of Jason Dovestone, Lee Roberts, Cartledge and Norton had driven the ball deep into the Irish half. Spencer took on the defence and popped the ball to Ashley Kenna who broke through the defence to score.

Irish got a late try which flattered the scoreline but this very young Keighley side never gave up. Parker got four goals and Benn was Man-of-the-Match.

Town are away this Saturday in another tough encounter at York Groves.