Cougars 11 Doncaster 16 - Doncaster Dragons had to rely on a massive slice of luck to pull off a narrow victory after a classic Cougar performance.

Trailing 11-10 with eight minutes to go Paul Manson set himself up for a drop goal. He hit the bar and the ball bounced back into the grateful arms of Billy Conway who slipped the ball to Chris Ross who was able to step over the line.

As if that wasn't bad enough young referee Ben Thaler failed to note that both Conway and Ross were in front of Mansson when he kicked, and since no Cougar player touched the ball the try should have been ruled offside.

Johnny Woodcock added the easy conversion to complete the scoring. Doncaster were ahead for the first time in the game, and had the points in the bag.

It had been a cracking game that deserved to be settled in style, not through a fluke score.

Max Tomlinson led the way for the Cougars with a great early try. He raced on to a superb Matt Firth pass in the sixth minute to go 40 metres upfield, beating Woodcock to touch down. Paul Ahston's touchline conversion attempt bounced on the crossbar before dropping the wrong side of the posts.

He made up for that disappointment with two penalties and a drop goal as the Cougars dominated the first half. They led 9-4 at the break, Doncaster scoring a good try when speedy forward Tony Atter raced onto a pass from Maea David in the 18th minute.

But in the second half errors started to creep back into the Cougar play giving Doncaster the momentum. They pegged back the Cougar lead with a Woodcock try after 56 minutes, and the Dragons full back converted to make it 11-10.

Ollie Fairbank had a great chance of extending the Cougar lead only to see his 60-metre race halted by Woodcock and Conway.

It clearly wasn't going to be Keighley's night; earlier Ashton had looked to be clear only to lose the ball and a breathtaking 70-metre move in the first half ended with Mick Durham being halted inches short.

A little luck and the inexperience of the official helped Doncaster pull the game out of the bag, but Cougars should feed off the many positive aspects of their performance -- and learn lessons from the few mistakes which gave the Dragons a chance to steal the points