Keighley crush Bradford & Bingley but mood still low

A 10-try 60-10 home victory over bottom-of-the-table Bradford & Bingley took Keighley's points difference to 207, with top two Bradford Salem on 219 and Wetherby on 239.

However, deep down, McGee reckons that third-placed Keighley, with two matches to go, blew their chances of promotion when they lost 23-17 at home to Salem last month.

Salem, who still face a tricky trip to fourth-placed West Leeds (63 points) in the final league fixture on April 6, have 79 points, with Wetherby on 78 and Keighley on 73.

McGee said of the display against the Bees: "We played for about 40 minutes and didn't find a faster gear at times.

“We relieved pressure on them with too many unforced errors, but when we did switch on we opened them up every time.

"We did some really good things, but probably left about 30 points out there.

"We had a big advantage in the scrums, and probably should have got a few more penalties from that, but I spoke to the referee at half-time and he said that we had the momentum so he didn't blow up, which was fine.

"However, we gave away too many penalties, and we can be guilty of too much talking on the pitch.

“I don’t mean abuse to the referee but just calling for decisions to go our way and telling him what mistakes have been made.

“But we addressed that at half-time and were a lot better in the second half."

Keighley's tries came from prop Sam Booker (2), wingers Jack Atkinson (2) and Jack Wild (2) No.8 Tom Whyte (2), centre Sean Kelly and lock Ed Keighley, with Atkinson feinting to go outside and then stepping inside to score both his tries.

McGee added: "He is a strong finisher and used his strength well, while Sam played well the week before and again here and can be destructive when he has the bit between his teeth."

As for the table, McGee admitted: "We will be pushing for second place or third, but it will be very hard to catch Salem, and that is probably us in Counties One Yorkshire for another season.

"If we finish second on a comparison with other teams at our level we are off the pace and wouldn't be promoted via a comparison of results with other counties.

“That has always been a problem with Counties One Yorkshire being so strong and with teams beating each other, whereas other divisions might have one or two good teams and their win ratios will be higher.

"It would be better if they had a metric to take that into account."

McGee continued: "We had a bit of a hangover from the Salem defeat (losing 35-3 to Pocklington in their next game) but we played well against West Leeds on March 9 to reach the Yorkshire Shield final and brought that into this Bees game.

"It has been a tough old slog and we cannot fault the lads for their efforts as they are working hard."

There are question marks over whether some players will be hanging up their boots at the end of the season, such as fly half Alex Brown and centre Kelly, and McGee said: "I will be chatting to individuals over the next few weeks to see what will be happening."

Could this be Alex Brown's swansong season? (Image: John Ashton.)

Keighley, who had Brown, Keighley, Whyte and replacement Adam Horsfall returning to the 18, went 3-0 behind in the fourth minute when they were penalised for not releasing the tackler, with scrum half Dom Walker popping over an easy penalty.

However, the hosts took the lead two minutes later when lock Keighley barged over in the corner, Brown converting for 7-3 from wide out.

A great run from Seeley and soft hands from hooker Dec Hampson put in Booker for his first try, with Brown again tagging on the extra points to make it 14-3.

Kelly took advantage of the porous Bees defence to get Keighley's third try in the 29th minute, Brown again being accurate off the tee, just before going off with a calf injury.

Leading 21-3, Keighley made the perfect start to the second half when Booker went over in the left-hand corner in front of the clubhouse a minute in, Atkinson missing with the conversion.

Whyte scored six minutes later with a strong run, Atkinson making it 33-3 with the extras, but the home side then had a horrible five minutes.

That started when Horsfall, Brown's replacement, put a pass straight into the hands of Bees winger Ryan Wilson, who scampered 70 metres to score for Walker to convert.

Two Keighley players were then high tackled within seconds of each other, Wilson seeing yellow for one of them on an afternoon when the referee tried his best to keep 30 players on the field.

Atkinson went over on 62 minutes on the back of a massive Keighley push at a scrum before Wild scored five minutes later after good combination play.

Home scrum half Nathan Pickles was then held up over the line before the inevitable happened two minutes later from a five-metre scrum, with Whyte scoring.

Seeley, Keighley's third goal-kicker of the afternoon, missed with the conversion attempt.

And there was still enough time for Atkinson and Wild to complete their braces, with the former converting his own try two minutes into stoppage time to bring up 60 points.