Halifax 30, Cougars 22 - COUGARS looked like a team terrified of winning as they let a glorious opportunity against Halifax slip from their grasp.

Certainly after 13 consecutive defeats winning is a lost art and the sweet taste of victory has long since been forgotten.

For the players, officials and even the fans it seemed a long 80 minutes to bring the curtain down on a season which has been incredibly frustrating.

The successes of 2003, victory in the Grand Final and promotion to NL1, seemed a lifetime away.

But hope for the future shone through the dismal rain-soaked start to the match between the bottom two clubs in the league. Young players promoted from the Academy team showed they are eager for action and ready to take the step up into the first team squad.

Eddie Wilson, Andy Feather and Chris Roe all put in enthusiastic performances, and with a string of other youthful players waiting in the wings the future really is bright.

At Halifax the young guns more than carried their weight, but once again errors and silly penalties proved expensive.

The home side's first points came from a push at the play-the-ball and Jamie Bloem took advantage to kick his first goal and put two points on the board. But Simeon Hoyle, playing probably his last game for the Cougars against his home town club, was determined to sign off with style.

He ignited a last-game 'Cougar Roar' with a slick dummy to touch down just to the left of the posts following an enterprising break from Matty Firth. Craig Nipperess added the conversion and the Keighley side were 6-2 ahead.

They went close again when Firth chipped through and was taken out off the ball, but as the offence went unpunished Rikki Sheriffe eluded a stretched Cougar defence to race 60m and touch down, leaving Bloem an easy conversion to put the home side into the lead.

Ben Black followed up with a neat move to step through the Cougar defence which was left chasing shadows for another converted try.

Cougars were not going to lie down and Craig McDowell launched a sparkling attack backed up by Richard Mervill and finished off by David Foster to keep them in touch.

Sheriffe added his second try to give Halifax an 18-10 lead at the break.

Cougars launched an impressive opening to the second half with Lee Patterson forcing his way through a mass of 'Fax defenders and Nipperess added the extra points.

But the home side were more alert in defence and sharper in attack. Full back Scott Grix teased the Cougar side throughout the game.

Black added his second try and Ben Freeman took the game beyond Keighley's reach with a another breakaway score, blasting to the posts from just inside the Cougar half.

Matty Firth signed off a solid season by following up his own chip through to touch down and Nipperess added the kick to bring up the final scoreline -- and start the planning for 2005.

First to be pencilled in should be the two senior members of the team, Phil Stephenson, who has had another storming season must have found it totally frustrating to see the team relegated after the hard work of gaining promotion only 12 months earlier.

Matt Foster has also been on top form. After being almost lost to the professional game he has been the top try scorer in NL1, can there ever before have been a top try scorer, in any division, who has then seen his side relegated?

The task of management at the club must then be to retain the majority of players, or much of the hard work which followed the rescue of the club from administration will be undone. Now is the time not only to look to the next year, but to plan for the next three years.

It may be that promotion last year came a season too soon, but the club must make sure it is not caught out in the same way again.

With changes to the Arriva Cup format the 2005 season is not due to start until March, but the next five or six months will pass with lightning speed.