Halifax 38 Cougars 10 - FORWARDS Toby Williams and Phil Stephenson formed a rock-solid partnership in a heroic Cougar performance in the first round of the Northern Rail Cup.

The final scoreline did nothing to reflect the performance of the young Cougar side and the Keighley coaching partnership of Peter Roe and Barry Eaton would have been far happier than their Halifax counterparts.

After spending a small fortune recruiting former Super League players to back their ambition of a place in the top flight Halifax found life far from easy against Keighley's squad, built around last year's Under-21 team.

Two of their most influential players were former Cougars David Larder and Simeon Hoyle.

For the Cougars Williams was again simply outstanding putting in a formidable tackling stint and on the field for 76 of the 80 minutes - almost unheard of for a forward in the modern game.

Stephenson was also called on to produce a marathon stint and both the Keighley tries came from moves inspired by the two forwards.

The most impressive period of Cougar play came in a 25-minute spell at the start of the second half when they survived wave after wave of Halifax attacks.

When the home side finally broke through Cougars had endured 20 successive tackles from their opponents - with some dubious penalties going against them.

James Haley scored the home side's first try after five minutes following a rare knock-on by Eaton at the play-the-ball.

Three minutes later Anthony Blackwood got the touchdown after Larder had gone close. His charge was followed up by a deft kick through that found three Halifax players lining up to complete the try.

Cougars piled on the pressure at the other end and forced the home side to drop out from under the posts twice before Williams piled on the pressure and slipped a pass that was flicked on by Darren Nixon and Sam Gardner took advantage to dive over in t he right corner.

Tries from Jason Boults and Damian Gibson opened up a 20-4 lead, after the Cougars had kept them at bay for long periods.

They added a penalty to stretch the lead further before Karl Smith grabbed his first try as a forward, converted by Eaton, to make it 22-10 at half time.

The score was perfectly timed to lift the Cougar spirits and they need all their reserves of confidence as Halifax came out and threw everything at the visitors early in the second period.

They had obviously been stung by the resilience of the Cougars and were determined to show they would be a force at the top of National League 1.

But Cougars dug deep again and put in that incredible period of defence that saw Alec Brown shine with a try-saving tackle and Richard Knight sent to the sin-bin alongside offender Dale Holstock in a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Knight had suffered a savage mauling on the ground from Holdstock who blatantly smashed his forearm into his opponents face. Words were exchanged as they got to their feet and Holdstock smashed a right hook into Knight's face.

The referee consulted his assistant, who should have had a clear view of the whole incident but rather than giving Holdstock the red card he deserved, sent both players to the sin-bin to cool down.

After making the breakthrough Halifax ran in tries from Joel Penny, Hayley and Holdstock to give the scoreline a one-sided look that did not reflect the commitment of a Cougar side that fought to the final whistle - and earned the admiration and applause of travelling Cougar fans as the final hooter sounded.