Normanton Knights 58 Silsden Park Rangers 8 - Rangers drew stiff opposition in the GMB National BARLA Cup in the Conference side Normanton Knights.

Always a daunting venue for any team, a weakened Rangers side was no match for the bigger and tougher Knights.

Rangers were without influential captain Neil Jordan due to the birth of his daughter Faith an hour before the kick off, and Ed Billings and Matt Robinson were not available.

The writing was on the wall when, after three minutes, the Normanton stand-off dummied his way through the Rangers defence to score under the posts. Rangers stuck to their task, but could not prevent two more converted tries before the Silsden stand-off, and man of the match, Andy Bowness found a rare gap in the Knights defence to score and covert.

In a bad tempered match, the referee lost control and the Knights second rower should have been sent off for running in and punching Jon Gwilliam. He did walk in the second half for repeated punching, but it was far too late for Rangers to take advantage.

After 30 minutes, Geoff Bowness replaced rangers full back Alan Preston who has been off all season with a finger injury. A penalty and a further converted try for Knights gave a half time score of 26-6.

The second half was a repeat of the first, but determined defence from Rangers forwards, in particular top tackler John Williams (above), Matt Horne, Mark Ives and Martyn Fryers could not prevent a succession of scores by the Knights.

A superb break from Matt Horne sent Paul Fryers clear, but with only the full back to beat, his pass to debutant Paul Langdale went into touch. The Knights added 32 points with a penalty conversion from Andy Bowness their only reply.

Rangers are at home tomorrow (Saturday) in a league match against Queensbury. Kick off is at 2.00pm. After the match all this year's sponsors are invited to the Cobbydale Social Club.