Keighley 3 West Park Bramhope 7 - Played two - lost two, is not an auspicious or confidence building start to the new league campaign. There is cause for concern in the Keighley camp, but not panic.

With the nucleus of last season's successful side available and a few promising new comers in the ranks it is surely only a matter of time before things improve. Only a single score has separated the teams in the games, both of which could easily have resulted in victories rather than defeats.

Injuries to skipper Duncan Walsh and Morgan Bailey, and the unavailability of prop Paul Sinfield and flanker Lee Gordon have dented the ambitions of the pack, but a more serious concern is the lack of cohesion and penetration in the backs, where the strong and elusive running of centre Dale Towler, who will be missing all season, is sadly missed.

Although outweighed by an uncompromising West Park Bramhope pack, Keighley's forwards stuck manfully to this task with hooker David Pullen taking several strikes against the head in the scrummages. Leigh Sugden, Matthew Green and Andy Bennett secured at least parity in the lines.

They could, however, make little headway in open play as Keighley overplayed their hand, stand off Johnny Harrison repeatedly turning the ball inside to the forward runners who were easily contained by the defence.

Potential match winners Carl Smith, John Hinchliffe and Warren Knowles were offered few chances to show their paces with nly centre Kevin Young and Carl smith carving out rare openings in the backs.

With the visitors opting for similar tactics it was a dour and uninspiring contest throughout. Keighley started brightly enough with only a poor pass denying David Pullen a try from a blind side move on the left.

A penalty goal by Johnny Harrison gave them the lead on six minutes which they stubbornly defended for most of the game.

The harsh dismissal to the sin bin of No8 Peter Schofield for the forward's persistent failing to release the ball after the tackle, proved to be Keighley's downfall. Taking advantage of their numerical superiority up front, West Park pressed relentlessly on the Keighley line and eventually centre Richard Monkhouse forced his way over following a scrum five metres out, and converted his own try.

It had long seemed likely that a single try would decide the outcome and so it transpired.

Keighley's try scoring chances were few. A strong run by Smith from a long pass by Harrison in the first half briefly panicked the West Park defence, but he was unable to find support.

Replacement wing Chris Watts tried hard to add some spark to Keighley's downbeat performance, but generally they were confined to s defensive role, a task which, in fairness, they acquitted with courage and purpose.

With the side's meeting again tomorrow (Saturday), this time in the Powergen national Intermediate Cup at West Park, Keighley will need to show more ideas in attack if they are to progress fffurther in the competition.