Keighley Cougars 16

Whitehaven 29

This was a far more positive display from the Cougars. They pushed second-placed Whitehaven all the way and the game was only decided in the last four minutes when the visitors registered seven points to make sure of victory.

Cougars coach Gary Moorby was upbeat afterwards, saying: "I thought there was a lot of positives and the lads showed a lot of character.

"For most of the game we were within touching distance but we just lacked that killer edge.

"Whitehaven are second from the top and have Super League aspirations and I don't think that the difference between the teams in terms of league position or budget was reflected in the game.

"Our completion rate was much better than it has been in the last couple of weeks, although it was significant that when we did drop off a bit in the middle of the first half that's when they ran in their first two tries.

"After that we were chasing the game and it was always going to be a difficult task against a professional side."

Certainly for the first 20 minutes the Cougars were the better side and two Adam Mitchell penalties gave them a 4-0 lead. They also missed a glorious chance of opening the try scoring.

Phil Stevenson made two devastating long range breaks and on the second he looked to have put Craig Nipperess clear, but the Aussie half back inexplicably lost the ball with the line at his mercy.

Whitehaven bounced straight back from that and as errors crept into the Cougars game the visitors' class shone through. The first try came in the 25th minute, a slick kick from Sam Obst was pounced on by Carl Sice behind the Cougars posts. Seven minutes later Obst collected a kick from Leroy Joe to score with ease, again leaving Mick Nanyn a simple conversion.

Trailing 12-4 at the break the Cougars were very much in his game and did themselves great credit after a further setback in the 52nd minute. Nanyn collected a Matt Firth fumble to race 80 metres up field. He added a conversion to his earlier penalty and suddenly the Cougars were 20-4 behind.

Two tries in ten minutes got them back in the game. Craig McDowell dummied his way over in the 55th minute then Simeon Hoyle took a quick tap penalty to slice his way through Whitehaven's defence. Mitchell added both conversions but Nanyn slotted over a penalty and Keighley trailed 22-16.

They tried desperately hard to at least salvage a point but lacked composure at crucial times, never really threatening a third try.

Instead, Whitehaven made sure of the points. Obst landed a long range field goal in the 76th minute and was then involved twice in the try of the game two minutes from time, his final touch sending Joe racing over, Nanyn completing the scoring with a sixth goal from seven attempts.