Barrow Raiders 22 Keighley Cougars 24

COUGARS head coach Paul March praised the character of his side as they clung on for a rare win against bogey side Barrow.

Keighley, who returned to the top of the table, looked like they were cruising to victory when Lee Haney was sent off with the hosts trailing 24-10 early in the second half.

But Raiders dug deep and almost claimed the spoils with a late fightback.

March said: “We showed tremendous character in difficult conditions at the end of the game.

“The red card certainly fired them up and they tested our defence and we showed what we were made off to hold them out.”

Bulls loan player Adam Brook marked his Keighley debut with the game’s opening try as he threw a dummy pass before turning Dan Toal to go over underneath the posts.

Paul Handforth’s kicking proved a problem throughout for Raiders’ and, when a high bomb caught out Chris Fleming, Ash Lindsay got the offload away to send Josh Lynam racing over.

Paul White continued his recent try-scoring form from Rikki Sheriffe’s pass, showing fancy footwork to leave two defenders in his wake and walk the ball behind the uprights.

The warm weather seemed to go to the heads of both teams, with many heated confrontations eventually boiling over into an altercation which resulted in Brendon Rawlins and Haney being sent to the sin-bin.

Barrow had the final say of the half after the Cougars’ resolute defence was finally breached by Peter Lupton’s pass to send Kristian Tyson diving over in the corner.

Barrow began the second period by closing the gap to eight points when a dangerous kick by Lupton caught out March, allowing Nathan Mossop to exploit the space and grab the try.

But Keighley regained their three-try advantage from the restart, with Handforth intercepting a wild Haney pass to race 30 metres and go over next to the posts.

Haney was dismissed after 53 minutes for fighting after when he reacted to Cougars’ complaints following a high shot from Craig Briscoe on Brook.

But the winger's red card seemed to motivate the home side and, with a healthy crowd behind them, Barrow came firing back to leave March’s side hanging on.

Mossop’s short offload brought Lynam out of the line to allow Joe Bullock to crash over unchallenged.

The gap was closed to two when Anthony Bate’s pass out of the back of a tackle was collected and touched down by Lupton but Keighley held on.