Sheffield Eagles 16, Cougars 28- COACH Karl Harrison's temper soared almost as high as the temperature in the Don Valley Stadium as he blasted the performance of his players -- despite picking up two points.

He summed up the performance with one word - garbage - as he stormed out of the stand following the final hooter.

Jason Lee had a nightmare, only alleviated by scoring the third try. The Welsh winger, normally so safe these days, gave away possession with his first three touches. But the fourth time he collected the ball he raced away to score a typically classy try.

Just as at Rochdale the previous week their flying start was enough to see them home, but they failed to kill off an enthusiastic, but third rate opposition.

Paul Harrison got the first try in the sixth minute, just getting a finger-tip touch to Martin Wood's grubber kick, the forward's pace and determination winning the race as the ball looked certain to cross the deadball line.

Wood then combined with Jason Ramshaw to create and overlap on the right, James Rushforth squeezing in at the corner. This time wood failed to convert.

In the 17th minute Wood was again the inspiration. His devastating 20 metre burst split the Eagles defence and his inside pass was caught by Lee who raced under the posts to set Wood up for an easy kick which made it 16-0.

Perhaps it was all too easy. After an impressive, but all too sort period of concentration Cougars took their foot off the gas and gradually the enthusiasm of the home side pulled them back into the game.

Former Cougar Chris Robinson typified their attitude. His kick and chase was very optimistic but it almost came off. Despite a string of Keighley errors which repeatedly handed possession to the home side they had to wait untilthe 40th minute to get their reward when another former Cougar, Dave Larder, combined with Ian Brown to send John Strange over. Richard Goddard's conversion made it 16-6 at the break.

The Cougars started strongly again and soon extended their lead when nathan Antonik touched down. Harrison took the ball to the Eagles line, flipped it back and Antonik scooped the ball up to dive over, Wood converted.

Sheffield began to take advantage of the increasing number of Cougar errors, but their determination cost them dearly. Graeme Hallas intercepted on his own 20metre line and raced almost the length of the field for the fifth and final Cougar try. Wood's fourth conversion made it 28-6.

But it was all downhill form there as Sheffield finished on top with two late tries, and they could have had more. Strange broke and looked for Larder who had been hauled back by Matt Walker who got 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

Strange made them pay with a grubber kick which was followed up by yet another ex-Cougar, Simon 'Stinger' Wray, who get the touchdown. Five minutes from time Ian Brown took a quick tap to squeeze in at the corner.

Robinson came close to capping a fine performance against his old mates with a try, and if he had crossed the whitewash they would have had to pay a truly heavy price. He was going out with his old mates to give Steve Hall a proper send-off as he left for Australia, and is not the type to let them forget.

It was a poor Cougar performance, but with home games against Whithaven and Swinton to come Harrison's men can get back into the groove before the play-offs kcik off next month.

They could even just win the Northern Ford competition, but must rely on Dewsbury letting their game slip against Oldham and Leigh in the same way the Keighley outfit allowed their winning run to come to an end.

But Harrison's hopes of sweeping to victory in the play-offs have been dealt a double blow.

Steve Hall's departure for Australia will leave a huge hole in the forwards. His work rate was always among the highest in the team, and the quality of the effort was supurb -- throughout the season he rarely missed a tackle or was responsible for any error which gave away possession.

The second blow was the knee injury to Dean Hanger which saw him helped off the field at Sheffield.

He will almost certainly be out of action throughout the play-off campaign and has been Harrison's most impressive signing and will leave a huge gap both in attack and defence which will be difficult to plug.

Shefield Eagles: Strange: Wray, Kite, I Brown, Williamson; G Brown, Robinson; Wittenberg, Vassilakopoulos, Bruce, W Freeman, Larder, Goddard. Subs (all used): Briggs, Brent, Wright, Johnson.

Cougars: Hanger; Rushforth, K Smith, Hallas, Lee; Seal, Antonik; Boothroyd, Ramshaw, Walker, Harrison, Hughes, Wood. Subs (all used): Pickles, Lord, Stephenson, Owen.

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