Keighley 90, Cardiff 0; by Keith Reeves.

The battle of the big cats never materialised. This was nothing more than a mauling for the Welsh side.

Keighley Cougars never gave their namesakes a scoring chance and, as the old adage goes, 'they were lucky to get nil' against Keighley's 17 tries.

Karl Harrison had made no secret of the fact that he saw this game as vital preparation for the key league fixture against Dewsbury on Friday, but this was nothing more than a useful training exercise.

Harrison said after the game: "The team gelled well, we looked more organised and certainly had more width to our game.

"All four props were outstanding and set up great platforms. Behind them our half backs were exceptional and were always going to ruin teams like Cardiff.

"Martin Wood is by far the best stand-off in the club - nobody matches him for his skills.

"The last two weeks we've been second best because we have lacked 'go forward', but our pack was just too smart and too used to playing at the higher level.

"The downside though are the injuries to Jason Lee and Mick Slicker. Lee injured his knee, which has been troubling him for the last two weeks, and Slicker limped off in the last couple of minutes having gone over on his ankle.

"He could be out for Friday, and that would be a big blow since he's been our best front-row forward this season."

At half-time it looked like Lee would go on to beat Jason Critchley's tries-in-a-match record, which stands at six.

Lee had already run in four by the break, but limped from the field in the 50th minute having tackled his opposite number into touch.

The Welsh wizard scored what must be one of the quickest hat-tricks in Keighley's history. He ran in their first three tries in under 11 minutes and got a fourth on the half hour when he cut back inside beautifully, side-stepping a couple of hapless defenders on the way.

Max Tomlinson grabbed Keighley's fourth try in the 18th minute, and Keighley finished the half with tries from Steve Pickles, Wood and Na-than Antonik to make the score 42-0 at the break.

With the slope and wind in their favour, there was no stopping Keighley in the second half. All that prevented them reaching the century were handling errors.

Tomlinson pounced on a Jason Ramshaw grubber kick, Ramshaw scored, and Ian Hughes forced his way over.

Wood grabbed his second, Karl Smith was put over by Richard Smith and Antonik grabbed two quick tries to complete his hat-trick.

Paul Harrison and Paul Owen scored in the last ten minutes and Wood completed 11 conversions for 30 points and the man-of-the-match award.

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