Old Brodleians 11, Keighley 17

Keighley, having lost their last two league games, were given little chance of victory at leaders Old Brodleians, especially as the hosts had beaten them 53-7 earlier in the season at Rose Cottage.

Jeff Inman’s boys might lack star quality. However, what they do not lack is heart and steely determination.

On a cold, damp day and on a muddy pitch, they battled their way to a thoroughly-deserved victory, scoring two tries, two conversions and a penalty to one try and two penalties.

The game started ominously for the visitors. Having chosen to play down the slope, skipper Leigh Sugden knocked on.

At the ensuing scrum, Keighley were caught offside. Brods’ Oliver Ackroyd kicked the pen-alty from almost directly in front of the posts.

There followed a series of slick attacks by Brods, orches-trated by experienced outside half Nick O’Connor, who was intent on moving the ball wide to stretch Keighley’s defence.

It was to no avail, however. Keighley full back Nigel Curr, aided by wingers Danny Lester and 17-year-old debutant Mathew Brett, coped with everything that came their way.

When Keighley were in pos-session, they were direct in attack, both forwards and backs driving the ball into contact.

A rare foray into Brods territory and quick ruck ball gave powerful centre Craig Spencer a bulldozing try wide out, Alex Brown doing well to add the conversion.

Although Keighley held a slim lead at half-time, they had not used the slope to their advan-tage after choosing a high-risk strategy of running the ball from deep in their own half, but they kicked poorly positionally. The second half up the hill was going to be a true test of character but within minutes of the restart Keighley had scored again.

A poorly-executed penalty kick to touch by Brown was followed up by left winger Lester, who literally snatched the ball from a defender and set off towards the try line.

Drawing the covering full back, he delivered an inch- perfect pass to centre Mathew Langstaff, who scored between the posts, Brown converting.

Brods knew that, at 14-3 down, the game was slipping away from them.

They redoubled their efforts and began by attacking Keighley’s forwards, but there was little chance of this working as every visiting pack member drove Brods backwards.

All the loose balls seemed to have open-side wing forward Dave Pullen wrapped around them but at times he was ‘too effective’ and was sin-binned for handling in a ruck.

Changing tactics, the Brods returned to their preferred game of wide-out attack. However, Keighley’s forward dominance made possession both difficult and slow.

Against the run of play, Sugden managed to muscle his way upfield, supported by a rampant pack. There followed a period of excellent driving play and ball retention and the pressure drew defenders offside, Brown landing a difficult penalty.

With 15 minutes left, Brods finally managed to score, a neat change of direction by their scrum half giving O’Connor a try wide out.

The conversion was missed, but they made up for this with an Ackroyd penalty five minutes later. The last five minutes were hectic and sometimes heated.

However, Brods had nothing left and Sugden was attacking out of defence on the final whistle in a magnificent team display.