KEIGHLEY Cougars recorded their first point on the road this season as a late comeback saw them salvage a 20-20 draw in the West Yorkshire derby against Hunslet.

Trailing by ten points heading into the final eight minutes of the game, two late tries resulted in Keighley managing to end their losing streak away from Cougar Park.

Played in front of a healthy crowd for the first time since the easing of Covid restrictions, which created a cauldron of atmosphere, Keighley began the brightest of the two sides.

They were boosted by having veteran James Feather back into the ranks, as he came off the interchange bench to move one appearance behind Phil Stephenson's all-time summer record of 343.

And it was Feather's Keighley team-mates who started the brightest.

From a twenty-metre restart, Jack Miller broke the opposition's defensive line and managed to get an offload away under pressure to the supporting Dan Parker, who rounded the full back to touch down behind the uprights.

Alex Brown then took Taylor Prell out on the line with a high tackle, with the Cougars centre returning the favour with a tussle on the ground that saw all players from both sides rush in.

With a narrow early lead on the scoreboard, the visitors looked to turn the screw but were kept at bay by staunch home defence.

However, they increased their lead in the 26th minute as Prell fought through a tackle to get to the line after great work by Aaron Levy to get an offload out of the tackle on the last.

Hunslet would then introduce Jordan Andrade from the interchanges bench and the prop single-handedly turned the game on its head.

On the back of a knock-on from the restart, the Jamaica international touched down after powering through an attempted tackle before turning his man on the line to ground the ball.

Minutes later, despite losing his shorts in the process, he again ran on to a ball close to the line and powered over, this time crashing over beneath the crossbar to give his side a two-point lead at the break.

Keighley though must have wondered how they didn’t have the lead as shortly before the hooter sounded, as Spencer Darley broke but was tackled just a metre short of the line.

Hunslet were the better side for large parts of the second half as they came firing out the blocks at the restart.

They extended their lead further after Vila Halafihi burrowed over from dummy half on the back of a penalty for stripping the ball against Kieran Moran.

Reece Chapman-Smith then thought he had a try from a Dave Gibbons kick, but the officials deemed he was in an offside position and disallowed the effort.

Ill-discipline from the visitors presented Hunslet with two penalty conversion opportunities, through a swinging arm and interference.

Jy-Mel Coleman converted on both occasions to move the Parksiders into a ten-point lead heading into the closing stages of the contest.

However, a sensational final eight minutes saw Rhys Lovegrove’s side come back to leave with a share of the spoils.

Aaron Levy was held up but from the play that followed, Charlie Graham’s grubber kick bounced off a Hunslet defender and allowed the centre to touch the ball down in the corner.

Trailing by six points, the Cougars kept the ball alive, and Scott Murrell’s short ball sent Dalton Desmond-Walker racing through to touch down and send the healthy visiting support into raptures.