Keighley Albion 19, Normanton Knights 20 - Albion were looking for victory against Normanton Knights who were without a win in their two outings -- but missed out by a single point.

The return of Simon Kelk gave the Keighley side a more balanced look, but from the outset it was obvious that the Knights were goingto put up a fight.

Simon Marsden fumbled a play-the-ball close to his own line and Paul Sears took advantage to give Knights a 4-0 lead after only four minutes.

From the restart Albion attacked with Jon Gwilliam sending Kelk on a 30 metre run to the line.

Both sides were playing good open rugby with Gwilliam and Kelk causing problems for the visitors defence. But against the run of play Sears went over for his second try.

From the restart a great run by Craig Morphett caught the vistors offside and Dean Brookes kicked the goal to put Albion back in the game at 6-8. Albion were on a roll and good attacking play by both Rob Haughey and Rob Bailey put Albion back into the Knights 22 area their persistence paid off when Knights were penalised for ball stealing and Dean Brookes made no mistake with the penalty to level the scores 8-8 at the break.

Early in the second period Knights put their kicking game into operation and a Kev Martin 'bomb' caught Albion ball watching and winger Antony Pickering pounced.

Gwilliam break caught the Knights defence napping and Rob Bailey dived over from dummy half to draw level again.

The game turned on a bizarre incident in the 51st minute. Knight Ryan Tilford got between two Albion players knocking the ball down, it bounced back up into his hands and with the ref unsighted and no whistle he raced 30 metres to score under the posts as Albion stood in disbelief. Sub Ian Morse kicked the goal to rub salt into the wounds.

Albion hit back with some excellent play with Bailey scoring his second try and Dean Brookes added the goal to tie up the scores again at 18 points all.

Paul Seal was sent off for a high tackle on Gwilliam and Dean Brookes kicked a drop goal to give Albion a one point lead, but in a final push Albion were caught offside, and Ian Morse stepped up to take the kick from 35 metres out putting his side in the lead.

Albion were again left to reflect on a game that saw them create but not deliver the goods, Albion's Jon Gwilliam was Man of the Match with Martin Fryers, Craig Morphett and Chris Atkins not far behind.

Tomorrow Albion travel to York to play New Earswick All Blacks.