Keighley Cougars 32 Barrow Raiders 34

COUGARS head coach Paul March admitted his side's heartbreaking last-gasp defeat to Barrow was 'an absolute sickener'.

Chris Hankinson’s penalty after the hooter, following a contentious high-tackle call against Brendon Rawlins, was the difference in a thrilling end-to-end game.

Victory saw Keighley drop to sixth spot as Raiders leapfrogged them into the fifth play-off place with two games of the regular season left, though Cougars' place in the Super 8s is guaranteed thanks to North Wales Crusaders' defeat to Toulouse.

March said: “It was an absolute sickener. I think both myself and (Barrow coach) Paul Crarey would have been happy with the point.

“The penalty was a 50:50 call whether 'Rawlo' charged him down or not, but the lad was as cool as a cucumber under the pressure to kick the goal and it’s a bitter feeling that we’re on the wrong side of that.

“We must keep going on now. We had that massive low at Toulouse where there was no effort or commitment to each other but it was the total opposite yesterday, though at times we weren’t smart enough.

“We had a lot of the ball in the second half but spilt it early in sets when we should have been building pressure and getting repeat sets. We gave up possession too easily and allowed Barrow to build the pressure on us.

“There are some big games coming up now against Rochdale and York and we need to dust ourselves down and hopefully we’ll get the effort and smart rugby league from the lads on Sunday at Rochdale.”

Cougars took the lead early in the first half when Liam Darville worked the ball across to Paul White on the left wing, who walked home the try in the corner.

The Raiders then raced into a 12-point lead with three tries in a ten-minute period, with Ryan Fieldhouse scoring from a break and Jamie Dallimore getting the offload away to Hankinson from the restart for their second.

Dallimore continued to cause problems for the Cougars as he linked up with his forwards to get Eze Harper in at the corner.

But Cougars wouldn’t lie down and pulled the scores level, with Charlie Martin first touching down a Paul Handforth grubber before Ross Peltier bulldozed his way over next to the posts.

Barrow took the lead once more though as Dallimore weaved his way around Charlie Martin to squeeze over.

However, they finished the half with 12 men as Cameron Pitman was sent to the sin-bin for dissent.

From the resulting penalty, Handforth’s kick took a wicked bobble off the turf and fell to White who gratefully gobbled it up for his second of the afternoon.

Pitman returned from the bin in the second half and got himself on the scoresheet as he took the ball and went over with relative ease when he found five metres of free space greeting him as he took the pass.

Cougars made sure the game was still in the balance though as Fieldhouse and Martin had a sickening collision in mid-air and Rawlins was quickest to pounce for the four-pointer.

Liam Harrison restored his side’s six-point lead as he found a gap in the defensive line to crash over but Andy Gabriel responded for the hosts, touching down from a free play.

Keighley brought the scores level with Danny Lawton’s penalty, but Hankinson’s kick at the death knocked Keighley out of the League One play-off places.