London Skolars 16

Keighley Cougars 41

The Cougars strolled to their third win in four matches on the back of an excellent first-half performance against the Skolars in London on Saturday.

A Matt Foster double inside the first seven minutes and further tries from Dave Foster, Matt Bramald, Richard Merville and Paul Ashton saw the Cougars shoot to a 32-4 half-time lead.

"Those first 40 minutes were the best we've produced this season," said coach Gary Moorby.

"I've said before that we hadn't clicked yet this season but that first half was very fluent. I was very pleased. The little things that we have been working on in training were executed very well and we got the basic things right."

Skolars hit back in the second half to cut the deficit to 16 points before a second from Ashton - cheekily converted with a back-heel - and a late field goal from the stand-off eased the Cougars to a comfortable victory.

Halifax's victory over Hull KR in the pool's other fixture ended the Cougars' extremely slim hopes of progressing in the cup but Moorby sees plenty of reasons to be cheerful ahead of Friday night's derby against Halifax and the National League Two campaign.

"It was super stuff to watch. The Skolars aren't the greatest side in the world but they are far better than the Russian team Strela Kazan we beat last week. They are not a walkover and we had to work hard. We lost our momentum in the second half, we were not as clinical but I am not disappointed. We scored 40 points away from home. That first half performance showed we can look forward to going all right hen we head into the league campaign, which is what it is all about."