KEIGHLEY Cougars' faltering second half of their League One campaign continued with a limp 50-6 home defeat to Doncaster.

The tone was set in just the third minute as the Cougars defence allowed Frankie Mariano to race round beneath the uprights.

After losing Matthew Bailey, on his 100th Keighley appearance, and Darrell Griffin to injury, the Cougars fell further behind in terms of numbers as Ritchie Hawkyard was sent to the sin-bin for striking former team-mate Matty Beharrell.

With Hawkyard in the bin, Doncaster scored two further tries, with the first seeing Russ Spiers power over from close range from the resulting penalty.

A Dan Parker penalty then failed to reach touch and the Dons went the length of the field to score as Richard Owen touched down in the corner.

The visitors were then reduced to 12 men for the remainder of the afternoon as Jordie Hedges' first involvement from the bench was a dangerous high shot on Cameron Leeming that resulted in a red card.

The second half was a feeble affair as the Dons ran rampant to secure their comprehensive victory.

Spiers scored his second from the restart as he broke through the Cougars line and decided against using the options available to him, instead marauding through himself to touch down.

Jack Logan extended the Doncaster lead after he was quickest to a cross-field kick from Beharrell.

And the Dons continued their onslaught as Owen offloaded under pressure from Alfie Seeley to Jason Tali, who dived over from a metre out.

Seeley himself was denied just short of the line twice but the Cougars saved themselves from being nilled as Andy Gabriel touched down after Sam Doherty spilt a swirling kick from Benn Hardcastle.

Doherty redeemed himself though just minutes later as he squeezed over from close range to score for the visitors.

The Doncaster onslaught didn’t stop there as Jordan Howden offloaded out of the tackle to the unmarked Jason Muranka, who touched down from close range.

Muranka then scored his second to condemn further misery for Cougars.