West Bowling u15s 28

Keighley Albion u15s 18

KEIGHLEY Albion Under-15s lost in the first round of the Bradford Cup against old adversaries West Bowling.

Asking for a fast start, Albion allowed a repeat set and after a kick, Bowling took the lead.

Albion, playing on the smaller Clayton pitch, had a purple patch, inspired by Reece Smollen’s incisive break.

But, after failing to convert a golden opportunity, Albion proceeded to spend the rest of the half, dropping the ball and having to put on an immense defence shift but after one error too many, the hosts scored just before the break.

Again needing to start right, a monster hit from Lewis Bloodworth was followed by some shoddy defensive work allowing Bowling’s impressive full back to get close to the line and the hosts proceeded to score again.

Albion came right back and after some hard punching runs, Ethan Brewster crashed over.

Bowling, though, to their credit just seemed to have more nous in their play and added another two tries.

Albion brought themselves back into the game with two back-to-back converted tries.

Firstly, a good cut-out ball from Harrison Clamp put Connor Clarkson clear who cantered clear before crashing through a number of tackles.

Then from the kick-off Bloodworth picked up a bouncing ball before breaking clear and rounding the full-back allowing Clamp to add his third conversion.

With the game in the balance, Albion continued to make errors and Bowling put the game to bed in the last minute with another unconverted score.

Bloodworth, Clarkson and Brewster put in exceptional efforts in a losing cause.

Milford Marlins u15s 14

Keighley Albion u15s 20

ALBION u15s finally broke their losing run with a scratchy performance against a plucky Milford side who are also in a rebuilding phase like their visitors.

Again needing to start fast Albion’s brutal defence was in direct contrast to their attack, which was littered with unforced errors.

However, the hosts hit the front when a kick was uncontested by Albion and Milford’s centre subsequently scored.

Needing a fast response a move involving Reece Smollen and Evan Jones gave Billy Lee the space to go down the outside and tie the scores.

This is how it stayed until half time and upon the restart again an uncontested kick saw Milford retake the lead.

Albion scored two quickfire tries to take the lead.

First, Lewis Bloodworth snaked down the blindside, to score his almost customary try before Jones sweet pass at the line saw Brewster cut a superb line to crash through before rounding the full back and giving Harrison Clamp the opportunity to add the conversion.

However possibly the slackest defensive part of the game from Albion saw Milford’s big prop crash through some weak defence before crossing under the sticks to enable the scores to be tied.

With the game in the balance, Albion got a stroke of luck and had a repeat set for which Bloodworth showed his immense worth to the team by slaloming his way to the line leaving Clamp to convert.

Despite a frantic finish Albion held on to record victory which the side desperately needed.

Brewster and Bloodworth once again led by example with Mason Myers Roberts and Ben McParland putting in a great defensive rear-guard effort. Albion will look to push on from this point and put a marker down in Division Three.