Keighley 20 Pontefract 18

A Ben Blackwell penalty saw Keighley end a run of five straight defeats as they overcame fellow strugglers Pontefract.

The hosts broke the deadlock when scrum half Ian Woodwiss cleverly slipped the ball to big centre Marco Ferrazzano, who crossed near the posts, Alex Brown adding the conversion.

Minutes later, Pontefract forwards broke into Keighley territory and their efforts were rewarded with a well-taken try from livewire scrum half Craig Fawcett, Andy Dean adding the extras.

The hosts responded with some forward drives and clever interplay, orchestrated by outside half Danny McGee. Eventually the ball found full back Brown, who weaved his way through to score under the posts before adding the two himself.

Continued pressure saw him add a further penalty but Pontefract finished the half with one of their own from Dean. The visitors added another at the start and, with Keighley lacking cohesion under the coash, some good interplay saw Fawcett run at the defence and gain his second try.

With one point the difference, Keighley rallied. A long-distance penalty from Brown hit the post before Blackwell crossed wide out, only for the referee to disallow the try.

With time running out, Blackwell’s long-range pen-alty hit the cross bar and fell into the hands of Brown, who was chasing the kick. Although he was held up, Pontefract were ruled off-side and Blackwell kicked a simple penalty from under the posts to seal the win.