Keighley Cougars 44 Oxford 14

KEIGHLEY Cougars remain level at the League One summit following an unconvincing victory over Oxford.

The players responded to a tongue-lashing at half-time and came out a different side in the second period.

Assistant coach Adam Mitchell explained: “We showed Oxford a lack of respect in the first half and harsh words were said at half-time and we came back out for the second half and got the basics right, despite the change in weather.”

From the kick-off, Andrew Hoggins broke a James Feather tackle before offloading to Sean Morris, who raced in underneath the posts.

Keighley struggled to get a foothold in the game and a lovely offload cut out three defenders to give Andy Gabriel a free run into the corner.

Cougars took the lead for the first time in the game when, following a scrum, Rikki Sheriffe cut across the field and got the pass to Paul White, who dived over.

Oxford’s defence fell to sleep minutes before the interval to allow Paul March to scoot over from just two metres out.

The visitors went into the break trailing by six points after Aaron Jones-Bishop acrobatically crossed after great work by Doncaster loan pair Jack Walton and Josh Kittrick.

Conditions in the second half worsened, with glorious sunshine turning into pouring rain and this had an effect on what was already a miserable afternoon on the pitch.

Oxford put the kick-off out on the full and, from the penalty which followed, Handforth’s clever reverse pass to Josh Lynam allowed the second row to walk through and dive over.

Handforth proved to be a thorn in the Blue Army’s side as the driving rain came down and, after Jones-Bishop spilled the veteran’s kick, David March’s dummy allowed Rikki Sheriffe to get over for the score.

Marcus Brooker pounced on Jesse Sheriffe’s spill for the visitors' only score of the second half.

Lightning then appeared to strike the Danny Jones Stand and the match commissioner temporarily took the players from the field.

Ash Lindsay managed to squeeze through the tightest of gaps to get over next to the posts to effectively kill a poor game off as a contest before Hamish Barnes marked his long-awaited return to the first team with a try as he collected another lovely Handforth pass and raced 30 metres to dive over.

On the hooter, White grabbed his second of the afternoon as he dived over in the corner.