Coventry Bears 10 Keighley Cougars 42

Cougars took top spot in Kingstone Press League One with a comfortable victory to mark James Feather’s 250th appearance for the club.

But assistant coach Adam Mitchell believed his side should have won by a wider margin.

He said: “Every time we looked to be building a head of steam in the game, there would be a penalty or a stoppage in play which slowed down our momentum and without it I feel we would have scored a lot more points.”

Paul White got the opening try when he raced home behind the posts after a lovely dummy and break from Adam Brook.

Josh Lynam was sent to the sin-bin after being deemed to have committed a professional foul, although the offence appeared to be committed by Hamish Barnes.

After back-to-back penalties following Lynam’s yellow card, Jack Morrison fought his way over the line to level up the scores.

But the Bears literally handed the lead back to Keighley after spilling the restart, with Jesse Sheriffe getting the offload away for brother Rikki to score.

Lynam redeemed himself by weaving through a gap to score from Paul Handforth’s offload.

David March went close before Rikki Sheriffe’s pass sent White in for his second try.

The next try was made in Bradford. Samir Tahraoui’s offload to his fellow Bulls loanee Brook allowed the stand-off to throw the sidestep and go in underneath the uprights.

There was a lengthy stoppage early in the second half as Ash Lindsay sustained a suspected broken ankle.

Cougars continued to dominate the game and from Handforth’s clever play, Jesse Sheriffe broke and sent Lynam to the line for his second try of the afternoon.

Dan Parker’s steal from Brendon Rawlins gave the Bears a full set on the Keighley line and despite the best efforts of White, Jason Bass touched down.

Tahraoui walked the ball home for his first Keighley try after Handforth’s sidestep led to a three-on-one break 20 metres out from the Bears line.

With ten minutes left, Feather marked his special day with a strong run from two metres out and powered through three tacklers to squeeze over the line.