Sam Wild was the hat-trick hero for Keighley Albion in a fine display in Saturday’s home Yorkshire Men’s League Division Six fixture against King Cross Park Academy.
His trio of tries helped Albion to an impressive 38-10 victory, but it was the Academy’s team spirit and togetherness that was most important to coach Tom Savage.
And that has been on show for weeks, because after a slow start to their league campaign Albion Academy have now managed four wins in a row.
And that has set up a mouthwatering clash against league leaders Moortown Mambas this Saturday at Crossflatts in a 1:30pm kick off.
Albion were in control for most of Saturday’s game with the direction of halfbacks Jack Winterburn and Wild.
Young scrum-half Wild opened the scoring through two breakaway tries, converting one of those.
Not to be outdone, the forwards left their mark on the game with Thomas Dunn-Birch, Dan Carter and Jak Adams all crashing over the line.
Kings Cross fought back, eventually powering over to score from nice offload from the visitors’ prop.
The second half became more of an arm wrestle as both teams tired, however Wild and Cobi Denton found ways over to strengthen Albion’s lead.
Benji Horsfield looked a constant threat on the wing and Albion’s veteran duo of Richard Blackburn and Chris Spencer organised the team superbly from the middle of the park.
Owen Palmer left his mark on the game with the boot too, successfully making four of his five goal attempts.
Both of Albion’s open age teams are at home this weekend, ad Albion welcome Stanley Rangers in the later fixture.
That is a 3pm kick off, immediately following the Academy’s clash against Moortown.
It will be a tough ask for Keighley’s firsts, with Stanley top of the table, but it is a competitive division, with every side having lost at least twice already.
Albion are third-bottom, having won three of their eight games so far, including their last home fixture, 38-24 against Almondbury Spartans.
They were beaten in the reverse fixture against Stanley though, going down to a 32-12 defeat against their Wakefield rivals.
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