North Ribblesdale 25 Keighley 7

Director of rugby Graeme Sheffield is calling on his Keighley players to show two Cs - character and commitment - as they bid to avoid a second successive relegation.

On a day when they had to defend far more than they wished, they suffered a fifth successive defeat and could rarely gain a foothold in the opposition 22.

To make matters worse, they were on the wrong end of an 18-7 penalty count and also referee Andy Hodgson (Northern Referees’ Society), who sin-binned three of the visitors.

Even Sheffield and physio Dave Cook were banished from the touchline back to the technical area by Hodgson in the 23rd minute.

The loss left Keighley second from bottom with 12 points, ten ahead of seemingly doomed Acklam but only three behind Bridlington, six worse off than Pontefract and seven below Heath.

Sheffield, who lost his head coach Dave Lister in the week leading up to this derby, confessed: “It has been a difficult week - in fact it has been a difficult three weeks.”

Keighley trailed 6-0 at half-time to two Steve Moon penalties, and Sheffield said: “We were reasonably happy at half-time.

“The first ten or 15 minutes were acceptable but we were beaten by the better side overall who were quicker to the breakdown.

“We didn’t gel together well, we didn’t play much rugby in their half and we didn’t manage the referee well, and to have three sin-binnings is unacceptable.”

Sheffield added: “On the positive side, our line-outs went well, which have not been going well recently, and we defended well.

“But it is now that we need to show character and commitment as a team and hopefully we will get out of this situation.”

Keighley had the better of the opening ten minutes, left winger Sam Walker having half a chance of a try, but didn’t really threaten again until the eighth minute of stoppage time in the second half, when scrum half Tom Rock spotted a gap and went over for a try with the last play of the game before quickly converting with a drop goal.

In a half where Keighley often kicked possession away, Moon missed the chance to make it 9-0 by missing a 32nd-minute penalty, and a break involving prop Graham Newhouse came to nothing four minutes later.

Keighley were under pressure in front of the clubhouse early in the second half, and it took a superb tackle by Keighley centre Marco Ferrazzano on teenage winger Alex Carr, who had taken a great diagonal line, to prevent a try.

The defining moments of the match came in the 45th minute.

Firstly visiting lock Dave Iliff was sin-binned for offside and after evergreen flanker Mick Carr had scored a pushover try from a five-metre scrum and Moon converted for 13-0, Keighley prop Paul Sinfield was yellow-carded for punching.

Keighley also lost full back Rob Wilkinson with an accidental knee to the head, and it was inevitable that Ribb would score from their next five-metre scrum in the 55th minute, 39-year-old Carr getting his second try and Moon converting.

Ribblesdale completed their scoring with a try 12 minutes later from hard-charging skipper Matt Spears.

Things continued to get worse for Keighley with the sin-binning of Rock in the 71st minute for dissent, replacement prop Chris Morris then limping off with a pulled hamstring.

Rock then returned to get Keighley’s only points in stoppage time.