Challenge Cup third round: Fryston Warriors 32 Keighley Cougars 50

COUGARS scraped through to tomorrow night's Challenge Cup fourth round draw, defeating Fryston Warriors in a game filled with talking points.

Coach Craig Lingard kept his post-match interview short, lambasting his side’s performance as “embarrassing” and criticising his players for being “dragged down to Fryston’s level.”

A second-half brawl marred an otherwise enthralling game against the Pennine League champions at Featherstone Rovers' Big Fellas Stadium.

An exchange of words between Davey Dixon and Adam Rothwell boiled over and the match descended into chaos with numerous fights breaking out across the field.

This led to Dixon and Rothwell both being sent to the sin-bin whilst Andy Speake and Emmerson Whittel were both dismissed.

Whittel, whose red card could be deemed harsh in that he was acting in self-defence, came off worse as he found himself manhandled on the ground by a number of Fryston players, leaving him with a broken jaw.

All this came just moments after an incident had been placed on report as Josh Lynam appeared to have his ear bitten in the tackle.

Prior to this, the Cougars were finding the tie a real banana skin as the hosts ruffled the feathers of the side five divisions above them.

Despite taking an early lead through James Feather, who squeezed over from dummy half, Fryston drew level when former Keighley captain Paul Handforth broke downfield and sent Wayne McHugh racing over.

Josh Tonks restored the visitors' advantage as he exposed a bus-sized gap in the defensive line but they nearly found themselves heading into half-time trailing the community club.

Another former Cougar in Jack Lee threw a lovely dummy pass from the play-the-ball to put Andy Matthews over in the far corner, with Handforth turning provider for McHugh once more as the centre pounced on a grubber kick.

But the sides headed to the dressing rooms level at 16-16 as Fryston were penalised for not standing square and the ball was worked across to Danny Lawton to dive over.

Despite an error from the restart, it would be first blood to the Cougars in the second half as Sean Kelly continued his impressive return from injury by taking the play-the-ball and weaving his way over under the posts.

Towering forward Steve Scott brought the amateurs back level when he powered over from close range despite the best efforts of Ritchie Hawkyard to halt his progress.

Then came the big flashpoint as things boiled over. With the game reduced to 11-a-side, Cougars turned the screw with three quickfire tries to effectively kill off the contest.

The resulting penalty from the original exchange of punches went the way of the visitors and Adam Ryder was on hand to touch down.

Cougars then broke twice from restarts, Kelly finishing a flowing move for his second before Hawkyard was held short, allowing Brendon Rawlins to crash over.

Shaun Gee touched down an Aaron Dobek grubber to bring the sides back within 12 points but Ryder broke down the left flank to send his winger Andy Gabriel racing to the line.

Lee squeezed over to score against his former employers but Hawkyard had the final say, finishing a break as Gabriel turned provider.

PLAYER RATINGS

COUGARS: Hawkyard 5; Gabriel 6; Lawton 5; Ryder 6; Dixon 5; Milner 5; Beharrell 5; Law 5; Feather 5; Rawlins 5; Lynam 5; Tonks 7; Emmett 5. Subs: Whittel 5; Welsh 5; Kelly 6; Nicholson 5.

WARRIORS: Strong 5; Rothwell 5; McHugh 6; Gee 5; Matthews 5; Handforth 5; Speake 5; Fisher 5; Lee 6; Land 5; Scott 5; Smith 5; Dobek 5. Subs: Cogan 5; Withington 5; Kear 5; Jones 5.