KEIGHLEY'S head coach Dan McGee was in a surprisingly upbeat mood, despite the Rugby Football Union's mathematical formula confirming their relegation from Yorkshire One.

And he said there are plenty of reasons to be positive, as the club build towards bouncing back up in what will be their centenary season.

But McGee felt the decision to relegate sides like his based on possibilities was perhaps unfair, especially with away games at rock-bottom Hullensians and struggling Leodiensians to come.

Keighley's revised final points total of 45.74 was not enough to push them ahead of third-bottom, and safe, Pontefract (50.82).

Summing up, McGee said: "We knew it was an option and that if the RFU went on home and away results, we'd be in trouble. So it wasn't a complete surprise.

"We were disappointed though, because we felt we had momentum after some good results.

"We'd just beaten Pontefract, who we did the double over, and were due at Leos and Hull.

"We knew we were in a good position to stay up."

He added: "No matter what decision the RFU made, there'd have always been clubs who'd have questioned it, depending on whether they were on the right or wrong side of it.

"My personal opinion is that we should have had promotion and relegation, as there's teams that have worked hard to go up.

"But to do it on the possibilities of what might happen, for me, was probably not the right way, as clubs could have got results in those matches.

"Maybe they could have just gone one up, one down, and two up, two down was maybe too much.

"But then I'm biased, and you were always going to leave teams unhappy. We have to support the decision that's been made and just crack on."

And that is what Keighley are doing already, with McGee saying: "We need to plan for next season now and be positive.

"It will be our centenary and we can start building towards that.

"We pride ourselves on being an attractive club for people to come into.

"There's a good team spirit here and we're in good hands financially. We're a family club and are able to host things like weddings and birthday parties."

As for matters back on the field, asked what he expects from the competition in Yorkshire Two next season, McGee said: "We've not really had an eye on others, though we'll start to think about them in time.

"But early doors, we just have to focus on getting the club in the right place and we need to get the players we want tied down.

"We'll be the team that others want to target next season, as we've had some really strong performances in Yorkshire One.

"Yorkshire Two is not an easy league, so we just need to focus on ourselves and make sure we're the best team in it."