KEIGHLEY Cougars ended a run of three straight defeats with a hard-fought 24-16 victory at home to Newcastle Thunder.

Craig Lingard’s side entered the game down to the bare bones, with the 17 that took to the field the only players available to the Keighley head coach.

But they rallied to put a much-needed two points on the board much to the delight of Lingard.

“It’s very nice to get back to winning ways after a tough few weeks,” beamed Lingard.

“I’m really pleased for the players because they’ve deserved that win after everything that they’ve been through since mid-season.

“With the injuries that we’ve had and the players that we’ve lost through either suspension or people leaving the club, we’ve really had our backs up against the wall.

“We had 17 players out on that field today and they were the only 17 players I had available to me.

“But regardless of how many players that we’ve got, we’ve now only got players at this club who want to play for the Keighley Cougars.

“That’s all we want as a coaching staff and that’s all the supporters as fans of Keighley Cougars want, players who will go out there and put there all in for the shirt.

“And they went out there and the way they performed today was just fantastic so I’m immensely pleased for the boys that they got the reward for their efforts with the win.”

The visitors opened the scoring after just six minutes when Evan Simons jumped out of dummy half and broke, putting the ball on a plate for former Cougar Aaron Ollett to cross.

The Cougars drew level, though, through some clever play as Ritchie Hawkyard put a grubber in behind the Thunder defence and Davey Dixon raced through to ground the ball in the corner.

Keighley then took the lead for the first time in the game as Benn Hardcastle delayed his pass to draw in a Newcastle defender before sending Josh Lynam through on the inside to dive over.

There was then a moment that was savoured by all in Keighley colours as home grown product Alfie Seeley, on debut, scored with his first touch of the ball after a superb drive from James Haynes close to the line.

The second half started with the Cougars winning possession back through a Dixon ball-steal, with Newcastle penalised for not standing square at the play-the-ball.

Hardcastle opted to take the two on offer to further extend the lead.

The boot of Hardcastle added another two points to keep the scoreboard ticking over after the Keighley kicker was taken late off the ball by Ollett.

Thunder threatened to get back into the game through the speed of Theerapol Ritson as the full-back was stopped close to the line by a last-ditch Haynes tackle.

The Thailand international would get his rewards, though, as he scored a superb diving effort in the corner.

From the restart however, Newcastle coughed up possession cheaply and Hawkyard didn’t need the options available to him as he slipped a tackler to score.

The visitors would have the last say on the afternoon as Liam Richmond fended off the interests of Haynes with the Keighley defence scrambling across the pitch to crash over from close range.

The game ended on a fiery note as Conor Fitzsimmons was sin-binned for fighting after a late hit on Hardcastle resulted in fists flying.

The melee that ensued brought with it an ugly element as a Newcastle supporter attempted to enter the field of play much to the anger of the Keighley bench.

MATCH STATS:

PLAYER RATINGS:

COUGARS: Hawkyard 8; Dixon 6; Haynes 7; Leeming 6; Aaronson 5; Hardcastle 7; Gaylor 8; Moran 5; Feather 7; Kenga 8; Parker 7; Lynam 6; Whittel 5. Subs: Law 5; Cullimore 5; Levy 6; Seeley 7.

THUNDER: Ritson 7; Agoro 6; Brown 5; Young 5; Blair 5; Shaw 6; Marginet 5; McAvoy 5; Simons 6; Rennie 5; Luckley 6; Ollett 5; J Aldous 5. Subs: H Aldous 5; Fitzsimmons 5; Pointer 5; Richmond 5.

COUGARS: Tries: Dixon (13); Lynam (28); Seeley (36); Hawkyard (67). Goals: Hardcastle (4/7).

THUNDER: Tries: Ollett (6); Ritson (64); Richmond (75). Goals: Shaw (2/3). Sin Bin: Fitzsimmons (79 – Fighting)

ATTENDANCE: 732

REFEREE: Paul Marklove (Swansea)