KEIGHLEY Cougars suffered their first home defeat of the season yesterday
They were below par in their Betfred Championship clash against Midlands Hurricanes, Mark Dunning’s side deservedly coming away with a 20-12 away win.
The Canes came close early on, Lewis Else’s invention nearly catching out the hosts on a couple of occasions.
They did strike midway through the first half courtesy of Matty Chrimes, who broke away down the left to score.
Sully Medforth added the extras, but Keighley hit back to level shortly afterwards.
Some sustained pressure saw Dan Parker crash over to the left of the sticks, before Matty Beharrell landed a successful conversion.
It was the Birmingham side who went into the break in front though, Toby Warren breaking the defensive life and putting Else in to score.
Medforth’s conversion meant the Canes led 12-6 at the interval and he extended their advantage with the boot at the start of the second half after Keighley clumsily conceded back-to-back penalties.
Some brave defending kept the visitors out for a while thereafter, but a late hit on Else allowed Medforth to pop the ball through the sticks again.
And the fantastic Else made the game safe on the hour mark, his show and go try putting Midlands 20-6 in front.
A miserable afternoon for Keighley got worse when Izaac Farrell was sin-binned for a shoulder charge on Isaac Shaw after 64 minutes.
But moments after he returned to the field, full-strength Cougars did grab a consolation try, Connor Sayner bursting through to score.
Beharrell’s conversion reduced the gap to single figures, but with only four minutes left, there was not enough time for Keighley to stage an astonishing comeback.
Head coach Ian Hardman said: “We’re obviously disappointed with the result.
“I thought we started the game pretty well, getting into decent field positions, but we lacked a bit of quality in key moments, and we could have built pressure better in certain areas.
“Their middles then got a grip of the game towards the back end of the half, so I thought we were hanging on going into the break.
“The second half, we just undid ourselves in a lot of ways.
“There were certain aspects of our performance that we can’t really accept, but the players knew that themselves coming off the field.
“But we did face a fair bit of adversity during the game, so to stay in it and defend our try line like we did in parts of the second half, we can take heart and confidence from that.”
Expanding on that adversity, Hardman said: “We lost a couple of players to a HIA, as well as Jordan Schofield with a chest injury.
“We were busted and had to put people in unfamiliar positions, but that being said, we weren’t quite good enough and the better team won.”
Asked what that means for this Saturday’s game with Hunslet, Hardman said: “We’ll have to assess where we are in terms of personnel and find out who we’re playing with before we put a plan together.
“We won’t get too down about this defeat and we’ll be motivated by what’s happened.
“We’ll be motivated to put it right and be better next time, so we’ve got a big week ahead.”
Keighley Cougars lose first home game to Midlands Hurricanes | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
