Yorkshire Men's League Division Two: Leeds Akkies 22 Keighley Albion 16

KEIGHLEY Albion suffered an agonising defeat in this summit clash as Leeds Akkies replaced them at the top.

The contest was brutal from the off, with big hits from both sides. Keighley opened the scoring with a try in the corner from Alex Young thanks to some great ball work and a long pass from Rob Spencer. Leeds hit back to take the lead but Keighley started to gain the upper hand, with Mark Smith leading the way. Chris Price and Jack Kennedy, who came straight from the airport to play, were also to the fore, Price smashing his way over the line.

Unfortunately, in scoring the try he picked up an injury and Young also had to go off, leaving Keighley two men down.

However, Albion got a penalty in front of the sticks and Callum Hudson added the two on the half-time whistle to put the visitors 12-6 up.

The second period started badly for Keighley as two early tries put Leeds 18-12 up. With injuries hitting both sides from the awesome effort from both packs, it was getting tough.

Albion levelled with a try from Jack Atkinson and a draw looked on the cards until the hosts scored a controversial winning try. Keighley claimed a mistake from the referee after Leeds had played on from a knock-on while they had stopped play.

The conversion was added to put Leeds 22-16 up. With frustrations high in the Albion ranks, Rob Spencer earned himself a yellow card, leaving them with 12 men for the last eight minutes.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, Keighley thought they had pulled a try back when Ben Benfield went in at the corner, only to have it ruled out by the referee for being in touch.

Nevertheless, this was a great team performance from Albion, with Chris Spencer and Richard Blackburn standing out.