Keighley Cougars 22 Swinton Lions 24

PAUL March was left to rue defensive errors for the second successive week as they exited the iPro Sport Cup at the quarter-final stage.

After losing to Barrow in the Challenge Cup, Cougars were keen to reach the final of this competition at Blackpool, which is part of the Championship’s Magic Weekend-style Summer Bash in May.

But they missed out on a semi-final at home to Newcastle Thunder as Lions claimed victory thanks to a late penalty from Chris Atkin.

March said: “There was a massive effort by our boys in a tough game that could have gone either way.

“I thought that a lack of concentration by a couple of the lads allowed Swinton to take opportunities and the penalty near to the end sealed our fate but it was a good old-fashioned arm wrestle which on the day, didn’t go our way.

“Most of the time defensively we were there but a couple of times we were left to rue lapses of concentration which came about when people tried to solve situations by themselves instead of as a unit.

“At half-time I told the side to stick at it because we were in there fighting and making yards with good balls and needed to find better opportunities down the left edge because in the first half Swinton didn’t give us a sniff.”

Despite taking the lead through a Rikki Sheriffe effort after 11 minutes, Keighley never looked like taking control of the game before half-time.

Ben White proved to be the difference in the closing stages of the opening period as his grubber underneath the posts saw Grant Beecham win the foot race against Jesse Sheriffe to touch down.

White grabbed the next try between the uprights himself after racing 40 metres unchallenged following a line break by Aaron Lloyd, who had only been on the pitch a matter of seconds.

Swinton went two converted tries clear early in the second half, with Atkin racing over down the defensive right side after a mix-up saw Josh Lynam tackle the returning Gavin Duffy in an attempt to stop the Lions full back.

Cougars got the next score after 11 minutes camped on the Swinton line finally bore fruit when Scott Law saw off the challenge of three tacklers to squeeze over.

But a growing weakness was exploited as Andy Ackers dragged Paul White inside of his wing before passing out to Stuart Littler, who dived over to put daylight between the two sides.

Keighley then staged a comeback to level the scores with two tries in the space of four minutes. A Paul Handforth break set the scene for a dramatic last-tackle play, which saw March and Danny Jones both avoid tackles to send Brendon Rawlins over to score.

Rawlins himself made a break of his own, bursting through an attempted tackle by Jordan James before offloading to Jesse Sheriffe, who then raced over to touch down behind the sticks.

However, with 90 seconds left on the clock, Handforth raced out of the line and took Ackers with a high tackle, allowing Atkin to secure victory with the boot.

Cougars must now wait until their league opener on Friday, April 3 for their next action.

March said: “The lads won’t get weekends off training now. We haven’t got a game until the Good Friday fixture against York and we need to make sure they are kept up to speed and as match-fit as possible.

“The players who are fit and haven’t featured against Swinton, which includes the new signing Scott Lee, will turn out for the reserves tonight against Victoria Rangers.”