A LARGE crowd turned out at Crossflatts as Albion continued their quest to lift off the bottom of the national conference League.

New signing, former Cougar Alex Caine, was soon in action with strong running and rock solid tackling.

Keith Dixon was a late withdrawal from the side due to a pulled hamstring sustained in Thursday's training session. "The ground was very heavy last weekend and we decided not to risk any more damage," said coach Gary Moorby.

The Keighley side were on the wrong end of 54-0 drubbing earlier in the season at Dockers, and from the kick-off they looked prepared to make amends.

Within seven minutes of the start Albion applied good pressure, working their way into the Dockers 22 metre area. Man of the match Paul Moses opened the gap for Alex Caine who slipped a peach of a pass out to the supporting John wood to crash over in the corner and give his side an early lead.

Albion continued to keep up the momentum with Ian Spencer, Craig Livock and Rob Haughey making telling runs. dockers hit back after 20 minutes, a neat grubber kick through the home defence putting them clear to level the scores. Albion came back with a cracking piece of football through Wayne Smith and Mark Ives, stand-off John Williams opened a gap for Smith who interpassed with Ives over 70-yards which saw Smith collect the touchdown to take an 8-4 lead into the break.

Dockers, now playing with the Ryshworth slope, came back to take the lead with a converted try to make it 8-10 with 25 minutes to go.

Once again Albion applied pressure with Paul Moses directing their attacks. Teenage props Gary Boocock and Adam Lilley made good yards into the Dockers' territory while centres Simon Kelk and John Wood always looked dangerous.

A vital mistake on the scrum on Dockers' 22 saw Albion lose possession, the dockers winger collected the ball and galloped towards the home line. Mark Ives completed a spectacular chase and tackle in which the winger lost possession, but controversy followed as the crowd claimed the ball had been knocked forward while the referee waved play on.

The Dockers picked up the loose ball to go over between the sticks, the conversion making the score 16-8.

Another Albion handling error as they were driving out of their 22 was quickly punished by the Hull side as they crossed again to seal the game at 8-20.

After the match coach Moorby said: "We earned a lot of respect from our opponents, but had no points to show for our hard work after blatant mistakes handed them two tries. But the commitment from our players is continuing to improve, with the signing of Keith Dixon and Alex Caine creating a real buzz about the place, their presence even in training has lifted everybody's spirits."

Tomorrow (Saturday) Albion travel to York side New Earswick Allblacks (ko 2pm).

Silsden Park Rangers 24 Stainland Stags 16

Silsden Park Rangers moved into joint second place in Division Three, despite producing a real Jekyll and Hide performance against lowly Stainland Stags. A sparkling first forty minutes saw Rangers ease into a 20-0 lead, but they fell away badly in the second period allowing Stainland back into it at 20-16, until Man of the Match Jim Owens jinked his way through to seal victory in the dying minutes

Having only played once in the previous six weeks, Silsden seemed to quickly shrug off any rustiness. Hooker Dave Arnold broke from Dummy-half to release Jim Coldwell, and the big prop showed nifty handling skills to send Neil Jordan powering over. Great work by Owensalmost resulted in the outstanding Coldwell scoring moments later, before Arnold supported a Jordan burst to race in from 40 yards.

The Cobbydalers continued to dominate and Jordan linked up with Pat Illingworth to put live wire scrum half Andy Bowness in, and then a sweeping 90-yard raid led to their fourth try. Eddie Billing made good ground from his own try line, and when Arnold and Jordan took over they paved the way for Rob Leighton to finish strongly from 30 yards. Mark Adams landed his second conversion to give Silsden a 20-point interval lead.

But Rangers lost their way completely after the break, and their Halifax-based visitors ran in three tries to pull back to 20-16. Even then, only big tackling stints from Arnold and Dave Webster and some tremendous cover defence by Owens, prevented Silsden falling behind. And then faultless full back Owens crowned a memorable personal performance, when he joined the line to round off neat play from Adams and impressive sub Mark Kent, and wrap up the points.

Rangers are in Pennine Cup action tomorrow (Saturday), when they entertain Premier League Undercliffe (kick off 2pm).

Victoria Rangers 8 Keighley Albion 'A' 12

Albion 'A' started off 1999 on a very muddy pitch at Bradford and strong pressure from the Keighley forwards against a strong pack soon gave full-back Ian Anderson the space to go over with Captain Glenn Palmer adding the conversion.

Palmer added to this with a penalty in front of the posts and when Paul Sinfield crashed over to make it 12-0 it looked like a convincing victory was on the cards. However the home side dug in and as the pitch started to cut up scored a try and penalty themselves to make the score at the break 8-12.

The pitch had turned into a mudbath by half-time and with the defences remaining tight both attacks struggled to make ground. Victoria Rangers came close on a couple of occasions only to be driven back by the strong defence of Paul Harrison and Neil Earnshaw. In attack the only Albion highlights were a 50-yard break by Tim Cooper and Paul Sinfield and Gary Baxter coming close to the line.

Albion can take heart from this match as a return to the resolute approach which won so many close games for them last year.

Keighley Celtic 24

Cleckheaton 16

Mick Egan got Celtic off to a flying start in the second round of the Pennine Cup when he collected a chip through from Cleckheaton and raced 50-yards before slipping the perfect pass to Gary Marples who touched down under the post. Kennedy had no problem with the conversion as the Keighley side took a 6-0 lead.

Five minutes later and Celtic were 10 points up after centre Ian Robinson supported a Neil Kennedy break to score out wide.

The next 20 minutes saw a huge defensive effort from, Celtic, twice turning a Cleckheaton player on his back as they crossed the line. But finally Cleckheaton managed to score after a silly error from the back of the scrum gave them another set of six and the pressure was too great for Celtic. The conversion put them back in the game.

Celtic responded and some good home pressure saw Neil Albone offload for Steve Patterson to score and Kenndy converted to take the half time score to 16-6.

The start of the secondhalf saw Celtic making too many errors and Cleckheton took full advantage to get back in the game with two tries and a goal. The huge defensive performances of forwards, Ingham, Stott and Barlow with 84 tackles between them stopped the rot.

man of the match Neil Kennedy took the game back to the opposition with a classic chip and chase to score and convert. His two drop goals took off all the pressure as Celtic consolidated their grip on the match.

Celtic A 13

Wibsey Sedberg 34

Celtic's A team were full of confidence after the previous week's victory, but Wibsey's bigger pack dominated the game.

Noel Partridge continued where he left off with another tremendous tackle count while Shaw was not far behind. the experience of Walsh and Bastow led the way on attack, both going over for tries, and Bibby's boot was on target again to convert both and land a field goal.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.