Best yet puts Keighley fifth

Tries went to Paul Sinfield, Adam Balderstone, Dave Pullen and Neil Jor-dan, while Alex Brown capped a superb individual performance with three penalties, two conversions and a drop goal.

Scrum half Andrew Marklew also contributed well with some impressive handling and running.

Keighley had selection difficulties prior to the game, with five players missing from the previous week’s team – Matt Langstaff and John Currie (hamstrings), Danny Lester (groin strain), Craig Spencer (shin splints) and Nigel Curr (family bereavement).

However, with Pullen and Jordan returning from injury, Mark Beckett answering the call at full back and Balderstone returning at centre to partner the multi-talented Scott Dyson, Keighley still had a competitive team.

From the kick-off, Selby used their bigger forwards in concerted attempts to make inroads, and the pressure soon told, with the reward of a penalty for offside at a ruck. Unfortunately for Selby, No 10 Chris Quinn missed the easy kick.

There followed some slick handling from both teams, Beckett breaking the impasse by joining the line from full back. He broke the initial attempts at defence and gave what appeared to be a try-scoring pass to winger Jordan, but the ball was knocked from his grasp with the line at his mercy.

Within minutes, Selby had returned to Keighley territory, where they managed to win quick ruck ball, slick interpassing overcoming scrabbled home defence allowing Ben Lunt to cross in the corner.

With 20 minutes of the half remaining, Keighley’s forwards moved up a gear, gaining quality possession from all phases.

Mick Feather was more than holding his own in the line-out and the front row of Richard Leach, Nathan Thornton and evergreen ‘Slim’ Sinfield squeezed the life out of their opposition.

With their scrum in disarray and the contact area dominated by the Keighley forwards, Selby were in serious trouble and conceded a series of penalties, two of which Brown converted.

Apart from their skill with ball in hand, Keighley’s backs appeared to have learnt the lessons from previous weeks. Slow ball was intelligently kicked deep into the corners, putting even more pressure on their struggling opponents.

One such kick from Balderstone led to a line-out ten metres out. The tall Selby line-out specialists were stripped of the ball by Feather and the resulting ruck ball was cleverly delivered by scrum half Marklew to Sinfield, who used his considerable bulk to crash through and score, Brown converting.

Brown’s dynamic midfield partnership with Loughborough PE student Dyson was paying dividends. Dyson, with Balderstone in close support, formed a brick-wall defence and a potent force in attack.

One such attack featuring the centres and forward support from Leach, Leigh Sugden and Will Armitage gave Brown time and space to land a drop goal. On the stroke of half-time, he added a well-taken penalty.

Leading 19-5, Beckett and young Mark Brett were aware of the danger Lunt posed, tackling him on numerous occasions.

Against the run of play, an excellent break from Marklew found hard-working open-side flanker Pullen in support, who crossed near the posts, Brown converting.

Then a rare missed tackle from Dyson gave Sam Weller a simple run into the corner for Selby but any chance of a revival was snuffed out when the Keighley forwards put the finishing touches to the game.

They destroyed a tiring Selby pack in a series of scrums and aggressively contested every breakdown, excellent handling by Marklew and Brown giving Balderstone a run-in on the left.

The pattern was repeated down the right-hand side when Jordan outstripped the covering defence to cross in the corner.

This was probably Keighley’s best performance of the season and moved them up to fifth.

The Utley side travel to Scarborough on Saturday, confident of continuing their improved form. The seaside outfit are second from bottom in the table, though have four games in hand on the team above them.