Lions tamed as solid start to season goes on

Easter heralded a couple of days of holiday and over-indulgence for many of us. But for the Keighley Cougars it signalled their second league match in four days at a time when the team's resolve and fitness is tested, along with the squad's strength in depth.

Consecutive victories would mean stealing a march on the other challengers, whilst defeat means chasing the league even at this stage.

Following Friday's hard-won victory in atrocious conditions, Keighley were forced into a new half back pairing - Danny Jones at stand off, who subsequently won the sponsors' Man of the Match award and Craig Fawcett at scrum half.

A dynamic performance was required from them however the first quarter was typified by Cougar lethargy. The half back pairing was anonymous, and the malaise seemed to spread throughout most of the team. This allowed Liam McGovern, Gary Hulse and Phil Wood to steal the show, initially at least.

Within the first 12 minutes the Cougars had been penalised five times. It was from the last two of these penalties that created the visitors' first scoring opportunity. Wood, Hulse, and Martin Moana combined, before Moana's long fast pass provided an overlap for winger Andy Saywell to put his name in the try column.

As the Lions' confidence grew, so they upped the ante. George Rayner, Keighley's full back, was called into action to stop Wood from increasing the lead. The Cougars' 20 was under siege as they were forced into consecutive goal line drop outs. However, their try line pride prevailed as they held firm.

The introduction of Brendan Rawlins from the bench coincided with the Cougars' first cutting edge set after 17 minutes but Jones fumbled Rawlins' pass. The next Cougars set was similarly fated, following good work by Dan Potter and Jones. However, Richard Knight's low pass proved wayward.

Conversely, the referee missed the Lions' Darren Bamford knocking on Dean Gorton's pass. He alleged it went backwards.

On the next play McGovern put in a cross-field chip. As the wind caught the chip Gavin Duffy was forced to backtrack and stretched, but could not take the ball cleanly. It bounced in goal for Saywell to pounce on for four more points, which McGovern turned into six, leaving the home side trailing by ten points.

Darren Gibson set up another Swinton attack, making 25 metres after he had ducked under a Rawlins' haymaker. Two plays later they put up the bomb, which appeared to be knocked on by the Lions and was subsequently touched down by an attacker. However, the referee awarded a Swinton scrum.

The referee's next masterpiece followed a standing tackle by the Cougars. He said they failed to release promptly and Swinton opted to kick for goal. McGovern duly notched up the two points.

The referee spotted a Dean Gorton knock on and then penalised the Lions for off-side when Keighley tried for a quick play the ball.

The Cougars kept the ball in hand on the right, before James Feather found Rawlins to his left, who barged over as he cut a swathe through the gold shirted ranks.

Knight converted to give the Cougars hope at 12-6 down with ten minutes of the half remaining.

Swinton substitute Bruce Johnson attempted to slow down the play by holding down Neil Lowe, as Jermaine Wray entered the fray. Three plays later Wray released Duffy with a long pass to the winger. He sneaked over in the corner before McGovern had time to move. The tight touchline conversion was missed.

With two minutes of the half remaining Swinton forced Keighley into their third goal line drop out before creating a 24-carat scoring opportunity.

Hulse went long to Saywell on the right. He met with the exocet Duffy, whose tackle dislodged the man from his feet and the ball from his hands, when a try seemed certain. This left Keighley trailing 12-10 at the end of the first period.

The second half saw a fired up Cougars take the field, and take the lead within five minutes. Duffy dived in by the corner flag to defeat Saywell's grasp. This followed Rawlins' dummy run, which drew the defence as Jones put in the long miss out pass to the winger.

The conversion was missed but there was a further opportunity to extend the lead when a penalty was awarded following Swinton's Ian Hudson being sin binned. Unfortunately, Knight's radar was awry and he missed the penalty goal.

Knight however did increase the Cougars' lead when he scored the next try. It stemmed from approach work by Sam Gardner who was crudely punched by Johnson in the tackle to concede a penalty. As the set played out, Jones put in a deep pass to Knight, while Wayne Sutcliffe made the decoy run. Knight powered over the try line, with two Lions desperately trying to drag him down.

With an 18-12 lead now established Keighley's purpose and poise intensified. Errors crept into the Swinton game and when they infringed Knight punished them further by kicking the goal.

With time ticking down, forwards Sutcliffe, Shickell and Feather drove upfield before Fawcett found himself in acres of space. He pulled the trigger back and collected the one point for the drop goal. With it the match was secured at 21-12 along with back to back league victories.

Triumphant Cougars' boss Barry Eaton said: "I now have a selection dilemma given Danny's (Jones) passing today. Who is going to play?

"But it's a positive dilemma and shows the strength and purpose of our squad. We face Blackpool next week where I would hope to gain another victory."