KEIGHLEY Cougars fell to a 28-0 defeat at the hands of Batley in atrocious conditions at Cougar Park in their first home outing of the new year.

Batley opened the scoring in a gruelling and physical encounter after Lewis Galbraith collided with the oncoming Liam Senior yet managed to get the offload away to Shaun Ainscough, who in turn sent Joe Chandler diving over.

The Cougars were exposed down their right edge once more as a missed tackle sent Ainscough free with the winger putting a grubber in goal for Tom Hemingway to pounce on.

Keighley prevented Bulldogs extending their lead as Tom Lillycrop was held up following a missed tackle from Ryan Wright but Batley scored just seconds later as Jason Crookes dived over from close range.

Despite the freezing temperatures, it heated up on the field as, following a hand in the tackle, Wright and Lillycrop proceeded to have a punch-up which resulted in both being to the sin-bin.

Batley continued on the front foot in the second half as Adam Gledhill was held up over the line and, from the restart, James Davey managed to get his outstretched arm over for the try.

Keighley then had their only try-scoring opportunity of the afternoon as Adam Ryder broke for 60 metres and cut inside to go in underneath the uprights but the centre knocked on at the crucial moment.

And the goal-line defence that Cougars head coach Lingard had lambasted seven days ago at Barrow crumbled just moments later to give Dave Scott an easy try from a metre out.

The game was breaking down into a scrappy affair and it was leading to various incidents of handbags, the first coming after Brad Nicholson was penalised for a shoulder charge on the kicker.

The Cougars coaching staff were then left irate after a shoulder charge on Trae O’Sullivan went surprisingly unpunished by the officials, even after O’Sullivan had to depart the field with severe concussion.

Batley had a chance to extend their lead late on but Izaac Farrell’s effort was ruled out for obstruction.