Keighley Cougars 32 Oldham 24

Cougars returned to winning ways against Oldham to move level at the top with the Roughyeds in Kingstone Press League One.

But coach Paul March was critical of his side’s second-half performance.

He said: “To be in the position we were in at half-time and to finish only holding onto a victory, simply isn’t good enough.“We were vulnerable when Oldham were on the break, they were very effective in the second half and we struggled to contain that.”

Prior to the game Lizzie Jones officially unveiled the Danny Jones Stand and revealed that should Danny’s son Bobby one day play for the club, the number six jersey will be brought out of retirement for him.

The Cougars came out firing in a first half and scored five unanswered tries in a dominant 40-minute spell.

Keighley scored two tries in the opening five minutes with Paul March charging down a kick from in goal to touch down before Paul Handforth fought his way over from two metres out from the play the ball.

Handforth was a thorn in the Roughyeds’ side as he set up the next try when his clever short pass exploited a gap in the line to allow Josh Lynam a free 20-metre run to the line.

Paul White completed the first-half scoring with a brace of tries He left Adam Clay in his wake to race over before a clever interchange of passes with Rikki Sheriffe minutes created the space to dive over in the corner.

The dominance came with a cost for Keighley as they lost Jesse Sheriffe, who turned his ankle and Sean Kelly with knee ligament damage. Fortunately for March, Handforth returned to the field after passing a head test following a knock.

Oldham opened the second half with two tries in two minutes with Oliver Roberts, on dual registration from Huddersfield, breaking the line to set up Steven Roper before touching down Lewis Palfrey’s grubber kick.

Handforth sealed the victory when he threw a clever dummy to create himself the space to race home under the posts but Keighley proved to be their own worst enemy to leave themselves facing a nervy finish.

Sam Gee broke from a scrum and offloaded to Palfrey to get over the line before Josh Crowley touched down following a melee.