Keighley Cougars 26

Doncaster 18

KEIGHLEY Cougars continued the climb to the ever-growing talked about ‘zero-point party’ with a home victory against Doncaster at Cougar Park.

Despite trailing by six points at the interval, a sensational second-half defensive display kept Doncaster pointless in the second 40 and laid the foundations for a comeback victory.

And Craig Lingard knows that his team is on the brink of something special as the season goes on.

“As it stands, this bunch of misfits that nobody wanted don’t know how to lose,” gleamed the Cougars head coach.

“We weren’t happy with our first-half performance and we were under the pump at times in terms of the field position and possession that we didn’t have.

“We put a challenge out to the boys at half-time and they went out in the second half and rose to it and I’m immensely proud of the effort.

“It was our first real test and we’ve come through it with a win.

“We can now take this confidence into another tough game against Workington.”

The first half-hour of the game was played in a you score, we score attitude that saw the lead change hands on no less than five occasions as the defences seemingly melted in the scorching conditions.

Keighley got off to a nightmare start as Matt Welham spilt the kick-off and conceded a dropout.

From the resulting kick, Doncaster got the afternoon’s first score through the veteran Menzie Yere, who powered his way through two defenders to get himself over in the corner.

The Cougars would respond quickly and from their first set of the game, Jack Miller broke through the line and got the offload away to the supporting Macauley Hallett who raced 40 metres to cross.

The lead wouldn’t last long, and the Dons were in through Jason Tali, who had a walk-in after great work from Matty Chrimes to weave his way through the scrambling defence to allow the ball to be worked right to the centre.

Again, the response was swift, and the lead changed hands once more as Benn Hardcastle created the space from a show and go to burrow his way in beneath the crossbar.

Tali would then score his second, fighting his way over the line after breaking an attempted tackle close to the line.

The visitors extended their lead further on the half-hour mark as Elliott Townsend took the ball and powered his way over despite the best efforts of the Cougars' defence to stop the Hull FC man.

Doncaster thought they had breathing space heading into half-time but Chrimes effort was ruled out for a forward pass in the build-up from Liam Harris.

The second half was all Keighley as they kept a Dons side that had run out of ideas scoreless to knock another two of their 12-point deficit off the league table.

Lingard’s side first levelled the scores as Taylor Prell marked his debut with a superb solo 95 metre effort.

Prell took a kick on the last under pressure before breaking down the left wing where he left Doncaster’s right edge in his wake as raced home to the corner.

The Cougars then took the lead as Hardcastle’s lovingly executed grubber bounced up into the arms of the onrushing Dan Parker to crash home underneath the sticks.

Doncaster had their only real effort of the second-half but Connor Bower’s kick into the in-goal area was too strong for Tali to race onto.

Then, with six minutes remaining, the Dons were penalised for a dump tackle from which Hardcastle converted the two points on offer to seal victory.

PLAYER RATINGS:

COUGARS: Welham 5; Seeley 5; Cooke 6; Hallett 6; Prell 7; Miller 7; Hardcastle 7; Bailey 6; Million 5; Coventry 5; Levy 6; Muranka 5; Feather 6. Subs: Thackray 7; Gaylor 6; Parker 7; Arnold 7.

DONCASTER: Buchanan 6; Doherty 5; Tali 7; Yere 5; Chrimes 6; Howden 5; Harris 5; Douglas 5; Ogden 5; Boyle 5; Foster 5; Bower 6; Kesik 6. Subs: Spiers 5; Scott 5; Hedges 5; Townsend 6.

COUGARS: Tries: Hallett (4); Hardcastle (15); Prell (43); Parker (49). Goals: Hardcastle (5/5)

DONCASTER: Tries: Yere (2); Tali (12, 19); Townsend (29). Goals: Harris (1/3); Howden (0/1)

ATTENDANCE: 1040

REFEREE: Cameron Worsley (Leeds)