There have been a few restructurings of the leagues over the years, and Graeme Sheffield wouldn’t mind another one this summer.

“I hope there is a way for us to stay in SSE North One East,” said Keighley’s director of rugby Graeme Sheffield, just days after watching his side relegated back to Yorkshire Division One at the first attempt.

“I can assure you that we would be better next season were we to stay up but the top and bottom of it is that we weren’t good enough.

“They are a great set of lads and they tried their hearts out but it is like the US Masters golf play-off between Angel Cabrera and Adam Scott - the higher you get the finer the margins are.”

Keighley, who complete their league season on Saturday at feloow demoted club Durham City, lost eight matches by a converted try or less.

Conversely they won four matches by seven points or less but, after battering away at Cleckheaton’s line for virtually all of the second half in Saturday’s 17-5 home defeat, Sheffield summed things up succintly by saying: “We might batter sides but we have graft but no craft.

“However, Harry Titley has come on in leaps and bounds since he joined us from the Midlands and got the shock of his life in terms of the standard, Rob Wilkinson let no-one down with his display at scrum half on Saturday, where he has never played before, and we should also have Tom Lowther back next season.

“We had eight players unavailable or injured last weekend, but we will be losing Ollie Sugden to injury next season but fellow prop Paul Sinfield has promised me that he will play for us as long as I am around - we go back a long way!”

Sheffield added: “We (the coaches) had a long meeting after the Cleckheaton match and Tim Brunskill (forwards’ coach) decided he needed some time away from the game.

“Therefore Kevin Young is being promoted to joint head coach alongside Dave Lister and I will get more involved in the week to week selections.

“The players will be told about the club’s restucturing at a meeting tonight.

“The gym should be finished this summer and by then we will have planned our strategy for next season, although we haven’t decided when we will return for pre-season training.”

Keighley (at Durham City) from: H Titley; S Walker, B Blackwell, M Ferrazzano, A Sutcliffe; M Phillips, R Wilkinson C Spencer, W Armitage, P Sinfield, O Sugden, R Clarke, D Iliff, S Inman, S Dyson, L Sugden, S Minikin.