Keighley Town's five-week lay-off took its toll as they went down 18-14 to Littleborough in the Pennine Cup.

Town were unlucky not to win with the Lancashire club snatching a last minute try in the corner to secure a place in the next round of the competition.

After taking an early lead through classy stand-off Richard Shaw, who scored a try from his own kick-through, Town continued to pile on the pressure. Captain Billy Davey followed up with a try after good work from Neil Kennedy who was on top form at scrum half.

Littleborough scored a try to pull the score back to 8-4 at the break.

Playing up the slop Town took the game to Littleborough with Brian Ingham and Dale Barlow showing the way well supported by man of the match Billy Davey and Paul Scott. They scored another well worked try by Jimmy Shaw which was goaled by Mark Fudge to stretch the lead.

Littleborough came back with a disputed try and an interception try put the scores level at 14-14.with extra time looming town were caught out by the last minute score which put them out of the competition.

This weekend they travel to Cumbria to take on Ulverston in the National Cup.

St Joseph's 32

Keighley Albion 2nds 24

A strong Albion second string, refreshed after the Christmas break, went to Huddersfield for this Pennine Presidents cup second round tie. However it turned out to be not quite strong enough to overcome St Josephs who are top of Pennine Division 2, a division above the Albion 'A' team.

The Keighley side opened brightly, early pressure on St Josephs forced them into errors and from the resulting field position Andy Parker floated a long pass out for Dave Sanderson to shoot in at the corner. Chris Brookes added the difficult conversion.

This score stung the Huddersfield side into action and using the wide Fartown pitch and their speedy backs they soon scored a try of their own. Albion hit back quickly when Paul Fryers used a long pass to find Ayden Blackburn on the wing and the youngster completed a fine try.

After this hectic opening spell both sides settled down in defence and the game was appearing to be shaded by the visitors. However the turning point of the match came when Chris Brookes was harshly dismissed for a spear tackle, even though he pulled out of completing it once he realised the danger. With a man down on a wide, firm pitch Albion were really up against it and this was confirmed when the home side broke for a try soon after and a conversion levelled the scores at 10 apeice.

The Keighley side rallied and shortly before half-time John Williams spotted a gap and scooted through under the posts, Paul Fryers added the conversion to make the score 16-10 in Albion's favour.

After the interval Albion again consolidated with a Paul Fryers penalty conversion and it looked like the high workrate of forwards Adam Lilley and Andy Parker, combined with the efforts in attack and defence of Ayden Blackburn, Paul Fryers and Alistair Feather would win the day. Unfortunately St Josephs had other ideas and a poor 10 minute spell for the Albion with three tries being run out without any possession at all put the home side back into the lead.

Craig Livock stood up to be counted, sneaking round the blind-side of a scrum and forcing his way over from 20 metres out Paul Fryer's converted to put Albion two points behind with five minutes to go. However in the last minute a St Joseph's try and conversion sealed the match.

Though they lost the Albion Second Team can hold their heads high after battling hard against a side a division and a half higher than them. The next match is at home to Upton in the first round of the BARLA National Cup. Upton are in the Yorkshire League First Division and so will represent an even tougher test than St Josephs.

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