KEIGHLEY Cougars avenged last month’s defeat at the hands of the Coventry Bears with a 46-18 victory at Cougar Park.

On what was the club’s second annual pride day, a party atmosphere built throughout the day, with those supporting a Cougars side wearing a special one-off kit designed to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion who left with the biggest smiles.

And the home side got off to a dream start, crossing twice inside the game’s opening five minutes to really add to the occasion for the 1,028 supporters in attendance at Cougar Park.

With just 28 seconds on the clock, Charlie Graham broke through the Bears line and fought off a would-be tackler to crash his way over after the Cougars won the ball back from kick-off.

The visitors then put the restart out on the full, and from the resulting penalty, Jack Miller put a grubber kick in behind the defensive line on the last and Dan Parker raced through to pick the ball up and round the full-back.

The onslaught continued, Mo Agoro forcing his way over in the corner on the back of an outrageous offload out of the back from Taylor Prell that caught everyone in Cougar Park bar his winger cold.

With not even 15 minutes on the clock, the Cougars hit a four try lead as Parker powered his way over from close range for his second of the afternoon on the back of a penalty.

The quarter mark of the game did not bring any relief for Coventry as after a high tackle on Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e, fresh off a move to Hull Kingston Rovers for 2022 this week, Agoro broke a tackle and raced 90 metres to score.

It wasn’t proving to be the Bears afternoon, but a wicked bounce from a high kick from Dave Scott caught the teenage Laulu-Togaga’e cold and allow Hayden Freeman to take advantage and get the away side onto the scoreboard for some brief respite.

And brief it was, as Keighley went straight up the other end almost instantly and from a long ball over the top courtesy of Billy Gaylor, Agoro raced over for his hat-trick.

Miller, who had been provider on a couple of occasions, then got a try of his own as he fought his way over the line from close range shortly before half-time.

The Bears would have the final say of the half however, Dan Coates touching down after a chip from Reece Rance came back off the crossbar.

Coventry started brightly after the interval, and Brad Clavering got the rewards as he powered over from close range.

The second half was slow and lethargic, the sin-binning of Taylor Prell for retaliation a rare talking point as the game petered out.

However, Keighley did get the icing on the cake they were after, as Ryan Wright raced over the line, despite being the victim of a Nathan Hill high tackle on route to scoring his first try of the season.