SHORN of three key players and eight points behind with six minutes to go, things looked bleak for Keighley Cougars in the Betfred Challenge Cup third round.
But they stunned visiting Midlands Hurricanes with an incredible late turnaround, as two late converted tries put them through with an 18-14 win.
Keighley had breezed past amateur club Heworth in round two, but this tie against their Betfred Championship rivals provided a sizeable task.
The Canes had stunned expected top-four side Doncaster with a 26-24 home league win in Birmingham the previous weekend.
Keighley have already lost the services of centre Junior Nuu, who has left the sport to play rugby union with Doncaster Knights.
But more pressingly, Cougars were without Brad Holroyd (ankle), Lachlan Lanskey (hamstring) and Max Clarke (concussion) yesterday.
And while head coach Ian Hardman expects the trio to be back in action shortly, it still left him without three of his probable starting line-up.
Yet Keighley made a superb start to this third-round tie, David Foggin-Johnston latching on to Matty Beharrell’s grubber to score after just four minutes.
The latter’s conversion extended Cougars’ lead, but they were pegged back shortly afterwards when Danny Craven’s looping pass sent Luis Roberts in to score at the corner.
Lewis Else missed the subsequent extra two points, but Midlands were in front before the 20-minute mark, Toby Warren reeling in a short pass and slicing through a gap to score.
Another failure from the tee by Else meant the visitors only led 8-6, but despite his goal-kicking woes, everyone in the Championship knows how skilful and exciting the half back is.
And in trying to stop him after 26 minutes, Cougars had a man sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle.
Yet Canes failed to capitalise against 12 men, with their hosts having the best chance to get on the scoreboard before half-time, only for Beharrell to miss a long-range penalty that would have drawn his side level.
It was a messy start to the second half, with Else sin-binned himself for interfering with the ball at a 20-metre restart for Keighley.
Play was then stopped briefly for a head knock and when it resumed, Cougars thought they had taken the lead, only for their ‘try’ to be ruled out for a knock-on.
The tension was mounting, with neither side able to find the score they craved.
Canes did well defensively to concede a goal-line drop-out just before the hour mark, and that looked like being a crucial intervention when they extended their lead on 66 minutes.
Ollie Roberts took in a short pass and crashed over the line, with Else’s successful conversion putting the away side 14-6 in front.
Canes centre Ryan Johnson was forced off with an ankle injury a few moments later and perhaps that had an impact on his team-mates.
They were soon caught out again by the Beharrell and Foggin-Johnston combination, the winger touching down the joint-skipper’s grubber in the left corner.
A superb conversion from out wide by Beharrell put Cougars just two points behind, before the dramatic finale.
With a couple of minutes to go, Keighley’s excellent kick chase allowed them to take Todd Horner down behind his own line, after the full back had initially done brilliantly to claim the high ball.
Off the back of that, Izaac Farrell stayed calm and squirmed through the tiring Canes defence to score by the left of the sticks.
Beharrell gleefully converted the try on the hooter, putting his side through to round four.
Keighley Cougars win in Challenge Cup after late turnaround | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
