Albion 18, Pilkington Recs 6 - Albion strode into the third round of the BNFL National Cup with an impressive victory over former winners Pilkington Recs.

St St Helen's side won the cup twice in the 1970's, but Albion were determined to dampen their hopes this time.

They took the lead after just three minutes when Dean Brookes put up a bomb that caused confusion in the in goal area. Craig Livock pounced on the loose ball to open Albion's account, Dean Brookes added the goal to give Albion a 6-0 lead.

The Keighley side applied more pressure but Pilkingtons' defence held them at bay. Stand off Mark Forber was in good form with the boot pushing Albion back into their own half with his astute kicking. Both teams were trying to play open football despite terrible weather and Pilkingtons got their reward when scrum-half Alan Fletcher pushed the ball behind Albion's defence for hooker Andy Fairhurst to score. Mark Forber added the goal to level the scores .

It was Albion turn to hit back minutes later when open play saw the ball go through six pairs of hands and Simon Marsden went in at the corner for a try. The goal kick was pushed wide of the posts in the strong cross wind but Albion were leading by four points.

Props Ian Spencer and Gareth Greenbank along with Craig Morphett were in tremendous tackling form.

As the second half started the conditions were far from perfect and neither team was able to make a break-through. Only a last ditch tackle from Albion's Alistair Feather saw the visitors lose the ball much to Albion relief. As the clock ticked away Albion's defence held firm as they rotated their substitutes well.

Dean Brookes and John Gwilliam swapped roles and it was Dean Brookes who set up a try when Rob Bailey came bursting into the line from the centre spot. The winger's angled run took him wide of Pilkingtons' defence to score an excellent individual try wide out.Once again there were no extras as the ball held up in the wind but Albion had increased their lead to 14 - 6 after 71 minutes. Pilkingtons' full back Chris Hillam and stand-off Mark Forber worked hard to try and get their team back into contention but were to be denied when in the final minute Dean Brookes fed substitute Paul Fryers.

Fryers went on a 20 metre run, drew the opposition winger before passing to Simon Marsden who went over in the corner for his second try of the game. There were no extras as the kick went wide of the posts Albion's lead was 18-6.

The visitors' hopes of progess in the competition had vanished. The game was a credit to both sets of players and referee John Craig from Halifax

Tomorrow they are away to Castleford Panthers, and need to win to keep pressure on the five teams above them.

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