Cougars 18 - Hunslet Hawks 35 - A month is a long time in rugby league - four weeks ago the Cougars dominated National League Two following seven wins and just one defeat - since then it has all gone pear shaped.

Three defeats out of four, and only a shaky victory over lowly London Skolars to their credit, shows the Cougars are in a slump that could see a previously glorious season disappear in a puff of smoke.

There is certainly hesitancy where once there was swagger, and as for decision-making, it has gone from top rate to rock bottom in just four or five weeks.

Certainly against the Hawks the Cougars were their own worst enemy. They gifted two killer tries, defended their line badly and failed to execute whenever they got into a good position.

After the match coach Gary Moorby called for his players to dig deep as they head into the later stages of the league campaign.

"We shot ourselves in the foot with some poor decisions and failure to take some glorious opportunities. Once we have got into good positions we need to make the opposition pay, but too often we handed the Hawks scoring chances when we should have been the team going over the line," he said.

They started brightly however, Paul Ashton landed an early penalty then slotted over the conversion to the opening try. The score followed a brilliant diagonal run from Karl Smith who supplied a one-handed pass for Simeon Hoyle when he had been tackled and Hoyle raced the final 22m to touch down.

At 8-0 the Cougars were in control, but they took their foot off the gas and two Hunslet tries in four minutes turned the game.

Phil Hasty was at the heart of everything for the Hawks and created the first try, sending Ian Higgins racing in. Hasty converted and then gave his side the lead with a darting run through a static Keighley defence. His second conversion made it 12-8 to the visitors.

Cougars looked vulnerable, but not beaten, and they hit back straight away. Hunslet became tangled on their own line and from the resultant scrum Matty Firth worked a smart run-round move with Ahston to dart over untouched. Ashton converted to make it 14-12.

They should have taken that lead into the break, but right on the hooter Jason Ramshaw decided to chip from the base of the scrum. Instead of bringing extra points it fell into the grateful arms Hunslet stand-off Andy Bastow who raced 65m up field for their third try which brought a 16-14 half time lead and a tremendous psychological boost.

The second half saw them dominate for long periods. Hasty added a penalty and on the hour he dummied to kick before racing through a gap in defence. His conversion made it 24-14 and the Cougars were struggling.

They threw themselves a lifeline when Firth's long pass put Andy Robinson in at the corner in the 64th minute to make it 24-18.

They then had a great chance to narrow the gap further.

Hunslet were penalised for offside on their own line. The Cougars could have gone for goal, but they opted for the worst option, a quick tap to the blind side. Hunslet's massed defence looked to put Ricky Helliwell into touch on the first tackle. He put the ball back inside and it was gratefully accepted by Bryn Powell who raced 98m for the try which decided the game.

Hasty converted and added a drop goal to make it 31-18 and with 10 minutes to go the game was gone.

Paul Seal completed Keighley's misery when he raced in at the corner five minutes from time.

With six tough games to go Keighley are clearly struggling, but a win against Workington would clearly give them the confidence boost they desperately need.

The two games after that are Barrow and Sheffield, fixtures that will define the season.