KEIGHLEY player-coach Paul March admitted he was brought to tears as the Cougars were relegated from the Kingstone Press Championship after a dramatic defeat to Featherstone.

Ben Blackmore's late try for Rovers saw March's men go down by just one point after both Whitehaven and Batley won on the final day to clinch safety.

March was devastated at the result but hopes his side will scrap to bounce back next year.

"I've got a group of players who are hurting in there," said an emotional March.

"We had the game in the bag and it's the same old story. We've let the other team in it and they stole it at the death.

"It's probably not sunk in for most of us but we're on a massive downer. We've now got to just regroup as a club and come back fighting.

"We're relegated at the end of the day and if it hadn't have been for the restructure we would have actually improved on last year. But we knew the ball game when we set out.

"There were some tears shed between me and the players. It's the first time I've been involved in relegation in my career and I certainly don't want to experience anything like it ever again."

March also did not rule out legal action against Batley, who controversially had a three-point deduction overturned for fielding an ineligible player.

He said: "Are we looking at appealing Batley getting their points back? That's now in the club's hands.

"We were expecting to win to secure our safety and we put in a massive fight to save ourselves.

"Now the club will decide what to do and they'll look at that process. But with that group of players we've had this season, we are probably too good to go down."