Hat-trick Shickell the hero as Cougars win

Keighley and Workington met for the fifth and final time this season, for the prize of play-off progression - the winner meeting Rochdale Hornets, who defeated York City Knights on Friday evening.

Town’s troops have been depleted during this campaign and were still without the influential Rob Lunt, whose career is threatened by injury, and Dean Burgess. However, they were able to welcome back Sean Lunt, Liam Campbell and Chris Young to their ranks. The hosts were missing only Greg Nicholson, after James Feather, Jermaine Wray and Danny Jones came through late fitness tests.

The four previous encounters between these two teams, whilst being won by Keighley, had proved close fought. Although Sunday’s play-off potentially provided the sternest test to date, in reality an accomplished competent Cougars saw off the opposition with comparative ease.

With six minutes remaining Workington’s coach Dave Rotheram appeared resigned to his team’s fate as Man-of-the-Match Andy Shickell crossed the chalk again to complete his hat-trick and Danny Jones claimed his fifth goal of the afternoon.

Yet whilst Workington’s bench appeared silent and perplexed, Cougars’ coach Barry Eaton was as animated on the sidelines as his charges were on the pitch. He made every tackle and took every pass with them.

As the hooter sounded an exhausted Eaton said: “We got the result we needed. We are still in the hunt and our season is still very much alive. We now face Rochdale at home this Sunday.

“Our defence set up the platform for today’s victory and by the time they scored a late consolation try, the match as a contest was over.

“It was fitting that Andy (Shickell) received the unanimous Man-of-the-Match award, following his hat-trick. But today we had 17 heroes out there. Andy’s hat-trick was a testament to all their endeavours and approach work. Andy applied the finishing touches however. He has been one of our mainstays all season.”

Fittingly, it was Shickell who opened the scoring on Sunday in the 12th minute, but earlier his defensive prowess came to the fore, dropping on Carl Forber’s grubber to prevent Town from an opportunity to score.

Workington defended Neil Lowe’s grubber kick but only as far as Feather to whom the rebound fell. The hooker switched play back inside where Shickell swept home as the white-shirted defenders appeared to wave a white flag in the face of Keighley’s shock trooper. Only the small in stature Forber tried, albeit unsuccessfully to stop him.

Jones tagged on the extras for a six-point Keighley lead.

Three minutes later Town took advantage of a home side handling error 25 metres out. On the fifth tackle Forber’s long cut out pass found Ryan Benjafield on the left. Benjafield beat Red-fearn’s tackle before stepping outside of full back George Rayner’s grasp for the four-point score. The conversion was missed.

Just minutes later, Benjafield became the Cougars’ benefactor when he gave up cheap possession, which unleashed Lowe down the left. Feather then fed the supporting Shickell on the blind side and he surged over under the posts despite the attentions of Bryce Poisel and Chris Young. Jones accepted the goal, to establish a 12-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Town tried to increase their tempo to get back into the match, shoring up their defence to repel fiery forwards Lowe and Shickell. But it was at a cost, losing their scrum half, Poisel, with a severely dislocated shoulder. Trying to force the pace Workington added to their own woes when Campbell and Young were guilty of crossing and then during their next set Forber put the ball in to touch on the full, to once more concede possession and position.

Playing with panache, the the Cougars put together a phase of short sharp cohesive choppy passes before Jones deftly kicked to the posts. The predatory Jon Presley took the egg off the upright to score, which Jones again converted, to give the Cougars a 18-4 cushion.

On the stroke of half-time, the Cougar curse struck again, conceding a late try - this time to Sean Lunt. Forber goaled to narrow the margin to 18-10.

Keighley erred at the second half restart when Scott Law lost the ball in the tackle at the edge of his own 20. However, the visitors could not make his unexpected generosity count. Unlike Keighley’s Jones, who gratefully accepted the two-point penalty when Matt Tunstall held Simon Bissell down in the tackle.

Both teams applied a defensive tourniquet to stop any further scores until the 74th minute.

But then up stepped Shickell to once more break the line to the right of the posts. Jones’ goal sealed the game at 26-10.

Dexter Miller scored a late consolation for the Cumbrians, before Bissell added his name to the scoresheet by bursting through Tunstall and Ryan Campbell’s tackle on his charge to the chalk. Jones’ goal gave him six for the match and a final scoreline of 32-14, as the Cougars confirmed their superiority over the Cumbrians for the fifth consecutive occasion.