KEIGHLEY Cougars brought down the curtain on their 2016 season and the Paul March era with a comprehensive 50-8 victory at home to York City Knights.

A tiring Knights side, playing their second game in little under 72 hours, held their own for the first half hour before being blown away by a relentless Cougars outfit.

Retiring trio Ash Lindsay, Paul Handforth and Paul White all played their part, with Handforth and White crossing for tries while White and Ash Lindsay both converted goals late on.

Danny Lawton was the star of the show though, with his hat-trick and five conversions setting the tone for the afternoon.

The home side got off to the better start when the Knights were penalised for not standing square and from the resulting penalty, Keighley worked the ball across field to Danny Lawton who managed to squeeze over.

The Knights hit back through Tommy Saxton, but the Cougars restored the advantage when Aaron Ollett touched down with his first touch off the ball after great play from Ross Peltier.

Jack Aldous pounced on a Danny Nicklas grubber but that would be as good as it got for James Ford and his side as the Cougars blew them away.

Lawton raced over for his second after great work by Handforth to create the space, with Will Milner showing good footwork and speed to create space and get over next to the posts.

The second half saw Keighley run riot with Ritchie Hawkyard scoring his first of the afternoon as he picked a Handforth kick out of the clouds to touch down.

Ritchie linked up down the right hand flank with brother Darren as they played the ball across to Lawton who dived over in the corner to complete his trio of tries.

Ritchie Hawkyard grabbed his second try off the afternoon, running around a series of Knights defenders to touch down, duly converted by Lindsay.

Handforth then touched down his own kick over the top, outpacing Bradford-bound Peltier to get to the ball with White himself diving on a grubber to bring the curtain down on the season and his career.