Hunslet Parkside u-14s 30 Keighley Albion u-14s 14

KEIGHLEY Albion under-14s gave a good account of themselves at improving Hunslet Parkside and the final scoreline did not do them justice as the game could still have gone either way as it entered the closing stages.

Albion made the best possible start when the tenacity of George Georgallis took him through a packed defence to give his side an advantage which they held for most of the first half.

However, mounting pressure as the interval approached saw Hunslet score twice to lead 12-6 and thereafter Albion were always chasing the match.

Ciaran Bartlett's strong run put a try on a plate for Edward Croft and, after a further opposition try, Will Hartley skilfully wrong-footed the home defence to narrow the margin to four points with five minutes still to play.

Unfortunately, that was as close as they got and two further Hunslet tries in added time sealed their victory.

Match awards went to Georgallis, Charlie Heath, Joel Livock and Hartley.

Newsome Panthers u-12s 14 Keighley Albion u-12s 10

ALBION again missed out in devastating fashion to a solid but unspectacular Newsome outfit to leave themselves in real danger of dropping out of Division Two of the Yorkshire Junior League.

Keighley had to reshuffle due to a number of late withdrawals but immediately let the hosts know that they would be in for a game when they made huge yards on their first set.

Errors and pedantic refereeing decisions, which were the same for both teams, saw Albion turn ball over in their own half and Newsome scored out wide.

Albion hit back immediately when Caleb McConville's short kick-off was gathered in by Billy Lee, who scythed his way through a number of defenders to score under the posts, Josh Dickerson adding the conversion.

Keighley were laying siege to the hosts' line and scored off a scrum move when Reece Smollen and McConville combined to send Ben McParland sprinting over on the outside.

Albion could not add another try for which their play deserved and Newsome, despite playing well over the 20 minutes a half, scored when a mistake off a kick allowed the hosts to touch down to level the scores.

With the weather making the ball slippy, mistakes continued, and although Albion were the more threatening team, the hosts were able to gain territory due to unforced errors.

Newsome scored out wide to take the lead but, with ten minutes left, Albion created enough clear-cut opportunities to win the game comfortably but ultimately were unable to convert them.

The effort was there in abundance, if not quite the composure, but Albion know they will have the measure in the return fixture.

However, the pressure is on to close out these tight games to preserve their status in the division with only four games remaining.