This was another commendable defeat for the struggling Cougars, but again they made life difficult for themselves by giving the opposition an early lead.

This has been the pattern of play over the last six weeks or so, and yesterday at Mount Pleasant they let Batley run in 18 unanswered points in the first 15 minutes.

Dean Lawford opened the scoring for the Bulldogs as early as the second minute, and he was followed over the line by Shaw Royston and Bryan Powell, Barry Eaton adding all three conversions.

This could have signalled a landslide down the Batley slope but the Cougars dug in and managed to make it 18-6 at the break, Simeon Hoyle scoring the try of the game in the 25th minute.

It was started by David Foster, who collected a Lawford kick on his own 20- metre line before he released Hoyle on a 70-metre uphill charge.

Adam Mitchell converted but Batley came back strongly and it was only great Keighley defence that kept them down to 18 points in the first half.

After the break, Cougars dominated for long periods but were let down by a series of errors in crucial positions.

They looked like getting back into the game in the 55th minute when Chris Beaver went over out wide to make it 18-10 but any hopes of a revival were snuffed out on the hour when Lawford followed up his own kick ahead to bag his second try.

Eaton converted and 14 points was always going to be too big a margin for the Cougars.

Andy Robinson gave it his best shot when he followed up his own long- range kick to outpace the Batley defence with 12 minutes left, making it 24-14.

But in second-half injury time, Paul Harrison - a former Cougar - rubbed salt into Keighley's wounds when he charged over with ease next to the posts allowing Eaton an easy shot for his fifth goal.

Cougars coach Gary Moorby realised this was another two points lost, saying: "I can't knock the effort but our ball-control in the second half was woeful. Nobody means to knock-on but we worked so hard to get back into the game at 18-10.

"You have to feel disappointed for the players, who created themselves a vicious circle: "When you turn the ball over you have to defend; when you have to defend you get tired, and when you get tired you make mistakes, and that's just what we did.

"At a time when we were really in with a chance, our control and composure really let us down.

"Again we started badly, but I think the players showed great character to get back into the game and perhaps they deserved something for it."