Keighley Village Celtic travelled to Halifax side Siddal A and went down to a controversial 32-20 defeat in Pennine League Division One .

Celtic's disciplinary record this season has been superb but they had Brian Ingham sent off after only ten minutes for tripping, an offence described by coach Martin Plunkett as "no more than clumsy."

Yet even more controversially Siddal had a player shown only the yellow card for an alleged biting incident.

Further controversy followed as both sides had players sent to the sin-bin and at one point Village Celtic were down to only ten men.

Plunkett said: "It was one of those days when every decision seemed to go against us. It was a good game spoilt by a weak referee who seemed intimidated by the home crowd. I think on another day we would have beaten them and I was pleased with another impressive performance from my team."

Village Celtic raced to an 8-0 lead. The returning Darren Lynham scored the opening try, Neil Kennedy added an early penalty and the conversion before Ingham was dismissed. That enabled Siddal to claw their way back into the game and the home side led 12-8 at the break.

The second-half saw them pull further away with another quick try giving them a 20-8 lead Celtic though pulled back to get themselves right into the game with two quick tries of their own.

Billy Davey showed real determination to score a second but the try of the game came when inspirational substitute Anthony McNulty finished off some flowing rugby which featured Lynham and Richard Shaw. McNulty added two late goals to make it 20-20.

That looked like being a fair result until a penalty try was awarded late on, again the referee was prominent having originally signalled that the Siddal player had failed to ground the ball.

Finally to rub salt in the wound a try in the last minute ensured victory for the home side and an unfair margin of defeat for Plunkett's young side.

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