Hunslet Hawks 16, Keighley Cougars 4: An abysmal display of finishing meant that Keighley Cougars crashed to their fourth defeat in a row against a very average Hunslet side yesterday.

Their Arriva Trains Cup campaign could well have been derailed after Gary Moorby's men failed to take advantage of a massive dominance in field position at South Leeds Stadium.

Against a side who admitted in their programme that they "can't promise 100 per cent concentration" because of their Challenge Cup date with the Bulls next week, the Cougars spent the second half camped in the Hawks' half but failed to even threaten the line.

"I am very disappointed," admitted Moorby after his side's third defeat in four games in this competition. "We let ourselves down and simply did not perform. There was a lack of creativity and the players just failed to deliver.

"We had a team meeting on Tuesday where a lot of things were said and it was up to the players to let their rugby do the talking, but it didn't."

Despite welcoming back what should have been the key figures of Jason Ramshaw, Paul Ashton and Andy Robinson, it was a dour game from the start.

They did register the first score, however, when former Cougars player Danny Fearon, who was given a rough ride all afternoon, dropped the ball. A couple of tackles later Oliver Wilkes was interfered with and Ashton stepped up to make it 2-0.

But some poor tackling ensured Iain Higgins could give the home side the lead when he burst through three or four sets of wildly groping Keighley hands for an easy score. Phil Stephenson was then penalised for raking the ball out and Jon Liddell stepped up from 25 metres to make it 6-2.

With dropped balls, forward passes and harsh refereeing aplenty, it was a stop-start affair which only excited the travelling fans when various players took turns swinging arms at Fearon, and when he did his best, and failed miserably, to try clever tricks.

Ashton pulled it back with a penalty for offside, but Hunslet finished the first-half scoring when Karl Smith abandoned his post on the wing allowing George Raynor to finish in the corner.

A dull half ended with Mick Coyle and Lee Kelly going to the sin-bin for the fight that had been brewing for the previous 35 minutes.

After the break it was all Cougars, but poor execution ensured that no-one got close to the whitewash, despite the dominance. Forward passes were too often the problem but wasteful and wayward kicking added to the woe with Ashton largely to blame on both counts.

Hunslet only made it into the other half on two occasions, the second of which ended with Raynor catching a Liddell bomb to round off the scoring in the 70th minute.

The Cougars will be grateful for the Challenge Cup break and a week off.