Barrow Raiders 18 Keighley Cougars 16

Cougars slipped to their first pre-season friendly defeat today during a heated encounter in Cumbria.

Paul Handforth made his debut and was instrumental as Jesse Sheriffe opened the scoring in the 12th minute.

Barrow replied when a short pass from Liam Campbell sent Liam Harrison over ten minutes later before the game erupted shortly before half-time.

Barrow’s Jack Morrison and Cougars forward Jack Lee were sin-binned following a scuffle off the ball.

Four minutes after half-time, Campbell crossed the line as Barrow went 12-6 up.

The advantage was soon doubled as Joe Burke showed great upper-body strength to power over by the posts but Cougars struck back when Ash Lindsay powered through the home defence.

There were no further tries but the match ended on a sour note as Campbell was hit late by a Cougars player and required extensive treatment on the field.

He was eventually able to stand, with referee Gareth Hewer putting the incident on report.

Cougars now host Dewsbury on Thursday in their next pre-season outing.