Keighley Albion 10 Keighley Town 0 - The largest crowd at Highfield for many years witnessed a superbly competitive and hard fought encounter of which both teams should be proud.

It was a truly fantastic advert for local amateur rugby with both sides having some extremely talented youngsters in their ranks .

Albion showed great resilience in defence to complete a league double over their arch rivals Keighley Town who are clearly much better than their current league position suggests.

The intentions of the home team was on show from the outset with Albion forward Matthew Mount putting in an excellent individual defensive display including the tackle of the afternoon when he unceremoniously upended veteran Town forward Craig Morphet.

Despite Town having much of the early possession with old hand Lynam and youngster Ellison putting in some telling attacking runs the Albion defence held firm with captain Chris Dooling assisted by forward Scott Bellamy working tirelessly to frustrate a well organised Town attack.

Dooling in his first game as captain was causing Town some serious problems with his elusive offensive running with fellow forwards Steve Wrench and Jon Gwilliam making the visitors' defence work overtime.

On 21 minutes Albion opened the scoring when a quick play the ball saw centre James Bardgett, son of former Cougar favourite Joe, force his way over for a well taken try, the subsequent conversion proved just too difficult for full back James Young.

To their credit Town never gave in and their best chance of the game came when hooker Danny Barrett was held just short of the Albion line.

The youthful Albion half back pairing of Alan Muff and Jamie Donnelly was a persistent threat to the visitors both in defence and attack with Muff unlucky not to score from a solo break close to half time.

Town once again hit back driving the ball deep into Albion territory but a loose pass was intercepted by Bardgett who ran 60 yards unopposed to score under the posts. A James Young conversion gave Albion a creditable 10-0 half time lead.

The second half began very much in the same vane as the first but Town were clearly tiring against a young and enthusiastic Albion defence.

Town struggled to contain some strong running from Albion winger Marsden and substitute forward Mark Smith but the scrambling defence held out with both teams failing to add any points to the half time scoreline.

Albion captain and man of the match Dooling led from the front and was an inspiration for the home side who, were good value for what proved to be a confortable victory, but Town played an impressive part in a thrilling encounter.

n This Saturday Albion are again at home to top of the table Drighlington, ko 2.00pm.

Keighley Town 2nd XII 44 Greetland 14

Town second string ran riot against Greetland with a string of top performances from the club young stars and senior players.

Scrum half Jimmy Shaw was man of the match as he returns from injury and prop forward Barnes was also on song as he also fights his way back to full fitness following an injury.

Rob Sopencer scored a hat-trick of tries and Chris parker added two, with other tries coming from Liam Gillard, Tom Kenny and Danny Paton.

Dave O'Connor also socred a try and kick four goals.

n Silsden Park Rangers beat Emley Moor 42-35 and Cowling Harlequin defeated Hoyland Vikings 54-4. West Craven Warriors defeated Pak Amateurs 42-0.

Fixtures

Halifax Cup: Keighley Town v Ovenden A. Premier Division: Keighley Albion v Drighlington, Division Two: Moldgreen v Silsden PR. Division Five: West Craven Warriors v Whitehall Warriors. Division Six: Harehills v Harlequin, Hoyland Viking A v Keighley Town A.