Keighley 16 SCARBOROUGH 3 - Bottom of the table Scarborough belied their form with a gritty and uncompromising performance which tested a somewhat off-key Keighley side for much of this dour encounter.

The visitors' tough pack was always impressive, giving Keighley little relief in the set pieces and turning over possession in the rucks and mauls too regularly for the home side's comfort.

Nevertheless, Keighley's tally of two tries to nil fairly reflected their general superiority. Behind their forwards Scarborough had little to offer, apart from the pace of wingman Holloway and the occasional thrust of centre Hanke. Keighley held the aces in the backs in spite of the difficult wet conditions. The experiment of moving Scott Amos to full back was generally successful. He fielded and cleared the ball soundly and, whilst his running lines were often too lateral, he troubled the defence regularly enough.

Jonathan Hargreaves slotted in comfortably at stand off and Adam Balderstone looked more at home in his preferred position of scrum half. On the day, however, the pick of the backs was centre Nigel Curr whose hard running in attack and solid presence in defence were key factors in Keighley's success.

Keighley's pack was seldom outplayed by Scarborough's robust efforts up front, even though it was shunted backwards from time to time in the scrummages. Line out jumpers Leigh Sugden and Duncan Walsh, benefited from the accurate throwing in of hooker Evan Griffin, standing in for the absent David Pullen and the Utley men's superior technique enabled them several times to gain valuable ground with well organised driving mauls. Sugden in particular was in fine form and his fearless tackling and determined running did much to subdue the visitors' threat.

An early run by wingman Matthew Cox caught out the slow starting Scarborough side, which did well to repel Keighley's ensuing maul to the line, but in turn Keighley were fortunate to hold out when a botched quick throw-in at a five metres line out courted disaster. It was, however, only rarely that Scarborough threatened the Keighley try line. Keighley's scoring chances were more obvious; the clearest falling to Nigel Curr who cut inside from a sharp Keighley attack only to be tackled a metre out.

Tempers flared briefly as the forward confrontation evolved, referee Nick Masheder dismissing both No.8 forwards John Bennett and Peter Schofield to the sin bin, and a dangerously high tackle allowed Jonathan Hargreaves to put Keighley ahead with a penalty goal. Before half time the lead was increased when Scott Amos' crossfield run put Matthew Cox over in the corner.

Amos was again in action as the second half began, his sniping run and chip ahead ending with the ball rolling tantalisingly into the dead ball area. Hargreaves extended the lead again with a penalty goal, but Scarborough spurned scoring opportunities when stand off Ras failed with two straightforward penalty goal attempts before adding a successful kick. Keighley's lead was never sufficient to allow them to relax and their best efforts were repelled as they struggled to push their lead into the comfort zone. A good run by Cox took his close to the line, before the introduction of replacement Willie Hafu added new penetration to the attack. In the gathering winter gloom it was his powerful charge which set up Matthew Cox for his second try when he touched down his own chip to the line.

The victory hoists Keighley into fourth place in the league with a game in hand. However, with only two points separating them from the seven sides immediately below them there is certainly no cause for complacency. Saturday's fixture at third placed Goole, will be a difficult one.