Thornhill Trojans 40 Keighley Cougars Reserves 18

COUGARS Reserves' first friendly of 2016 ended in defeat to the Thornhill Trojans at a wet and miserable Overthorpe Park.

Despite having first-teamers Danny Lawton, Darren Hawkyard, Liam Darville and Ross Peltier in their ranks, a second-half collapse saw the Trojans overturn a half-time deficit to claim a comfortable victory.

Reserves coach Scott Lindsey said: “If I’m honest, I thought we turned up with a poor attitude against a really good amateur team in Thornhill.

“We thought we’d already won the game beforehand, but you’ve got to earn that right and this afternoon we just weren’t good enough.”

The visitors fell behind early in the game when former Hunslet and York half-back Danny Ratcliffe sold a dummy to the onrushing defenders to go over for the game’s opening try.

Keighley pulled level minutes later when full back Josh Hunt returned a kick on the last tackle the length off the field in front of a decent-sized crowd in Dewsbury.

Possession and scores were switching hands repeatedly in tricky conditions and Thornhill retook the lead when Anthony Harris powered over from close range.

Lawton levelled the game up once more as he scored from a well-worked play wide after a missed tackle.

Former Cougars hooker Luke Haigh handed the advantage back to the home side once more as he scooted over from dummy half but Lindsey’s side had the half-time advantage with a try on debut from Carl McGuigan in the corner followed by a second from Lawton.

The Trojans turned the game on its head and secured victory with a seven-minute spell in the second half in which they scored three tries in seven minutes.

Joss Ratcliffe touched down his brother Danny’s kick before a quickfire brace from Jake Wilson, first touching down a bouncing kick behind the posts and then finishing off a Ryan Fenton pass two minutes later.

Joe Waters powered over from close range ten minutes from time for the game’s final score and compound a bad day at the office for the reserves.

COUGARS: Hunt, Davey, Casey, Lawton, McGuigan, Darville, Seeley, Peltier, Cullimore, Kennedy, Nicholson, D Hawkyard, Courtney. Subs: Lee, Broadley, Moorby, Anderson, Graham, Yarrow.