Injury, illness and errors cost Keighley in Beverley defeat

IN AN often scrappy, unstructured encounter, a lively and youthful Beverley prevailed against a spirited Keighley outfit.

For most of the contest there was little to choose between the sides but the visitors, to a considerable extent, were the authors of their own misfortune.

Too often they lost the ball in contact, uncharacteristically missed tackles and significantly were forced to play a quarter of the match with only 14 men after avoidable sin binnings. Such were the influences which dictated the result in an otherwise evenly-fought game.

The visitors were unlucky in many respects. The late withdrawal of key centre Ben Blackwell through illness was compounded by a first-half knee injury to influential stand-off Alex Brown and the loss of centre Adam Horsfall (ill) and then No 8 Josh Hannah, with a recurrence of an ankle injury, severely hampered their cause.

Keighley notched the first points after only two minutes when Brown landed a long-range penalty following a late tackle. Beverley responded with a sustained and robust attack on the Keighley line which culminated in scrum half Will Harrison squeezing over for a try converted by skipper Phil Duboulay.

Brave defence by full back Alfie Seeley kept Keighley in touch and a quickly-taken tapped penalty by Brown brought the best out of a scrambled home defence.

Brown’s retirement from the field was, however, a significant blow to the visitors and the lack of a reliable goal kicker proved costly when an easy penalty attempt was wide of the target.

Keighley’s pack was contesting well at this stage, with Hamish Pratt, Stuart Inman and Matt Hagyard to the fore, but they suffered more misfortune before the break when Horsfall left the field with a recurrence of illness and wingman Joe Copperwaite received a yellow card.

They survived the ten minutes' numerical disadvantage without conceding further points but lack of possession prevented them from mounting any meaningful attacks.

The second yellow card proved costly. First, Duboulay increased his side’s lead with a penalty and then, after a passage of play in which neither side threatened the try line, a powerful burst by second rower Jack Houseman paved the way for replacement Steve Wiggill to cross the whitewash.

Restored to a full complement, Keighley produced their best passage of play. They won a scrum against the head deep in Beverley's 22-metre area, which led to Pratt picking up and breaking on the blind side.

A pass inside to Lucas Uren saw the supporting scrum half tackled virtually on the line but he managed a pass to right wingman Joe Sugden to touch down in the corner, which was too far out for Wilkinson to convert.

It was, however, too little, too late as Beverley’s energy and conviction secured the victory which on balance they deserved, though Keighley were well worth their losing bonus point.

The Utley men now have three consecutive games at home, starting on Saturday with Hullensians, when they will be keen to reverse a narrow defeat in Hull back in October.